The Rangers announced today that they’ve placed veteran right-hander Max Scherzer on the 15-day injured list due to a strained left hamstring. Right-hander Gerson Garabito was recalled to take Scherzer’s place on the active roster. Scherzer was scheduled to start tonight’s game against the Mariners, but that start will go to right-hander Dane Dunning instead.
The news brings to an end Scherzer’s 2024 season. In all, Scherzer managed just nine starts and 43 1/3 innings of work this year, the first time since his rookie year back in 2008 where he pitched less than 145 1/3 innings in a 162-game season. His results weren’t especially dominant even when healthy enough to take the mound, either. His 92.6mph average on his fastball was the lowest of his career, while a 22.6% strikeout rate, 3.95 ERA (100 ERA+), and a 4.18 FIP were all closer to pedestrian than elite. Since being acquired from the Mets in exchange for infield prospect Luisangel Acuna last summer, the veteran righty has pitched to a 3.57 ERA with a 3.79 FIP in 88 1/3 innings of work for Texas.
Those may turn out to be the only innings Scherzer pitches in a Rangers uniform. The future Hall of Famer’s contract in Texas runs only through the end of the current campaign, and he now appears ticketed for another trip through free agency. Scherzer celebrated his 40th birthday back in July and has dealt with a number of injury concerns this year ranging from offseason back surgery to nerve irritation in his throwing hand and triceps area on different occasions, but that hasn’t stopped the veteran from planning to continue pitching next year.
Even on the heels of the first injury-marred campaign of his career, Scherzer’s overall resume speaks for itself: the veteran boasts more than 3400 strikeouts in his career to go with eight career All-Star appearances, three Cy Young award wins, and three additional years wherein he was a finalist for the awards. The right-hander hasn’t posted an ERA north of 4.00 or a below-average ERA+ since 2011, and since then he sports a 2.95 ERA and 3.00 FIP, to say nothing of his career 3.78 ERA and 28.8% strikeout rate in the postseason and the two World Series rings he’s earned as a result of those 143 innings of work in the playoffs over the years. Still, at Scherzer’s age and coming off a platform season that raised plenty of questions about his ability to act as the workhorse starting pitcher he was throughout his 30s now that he’s entering his 40s, it’s not entirely clear what sort of market awaits the veteran ace in free agency.
Texas has exciting young arms like Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter coming up from the farm system to join a 2025 rotation corps that includes Dunning, Jacob deGrom, Jon Gray, Cody Bradford, and Tyler Mahle, but a return to the Rangers certainly can’t be ruled out. After all, Scherzer is likely to be joined in heading for free agency by Nathan Eovaldi, Andrew Heaney, and Jose Urena. That quartet has combined to start 74 of the Rangers’ 154 games to this point in the season, or nearly half of the club’s contests. Given the combination of youth and lengthy injury histories at play in Texas’s current rotation group headed into next year, it would hardly be a surprise to see the club prioritize adding at least one arm to help carry the load of the departing starters.
Of course, a player with Scherzer’s storied resume could easily draw interest from plenty of other clubs in the league the league. The right-hander’s former teams in Detroit and D.C. are both seemingly ready to take the next step after lengthy rebuilding periods and could benefit from adding a veteran arm to their young rotations, and Scherzer’s hometown Cardinals appear likely to try and revamp their rotation mix behind staff ace Sonny Gray after their second-straight disappointing season. Given the ace’s talent when healthy and the fact that his age and recent injury history appear likely to limit him to a short-term deal, there’s countless teams that could reasonably be positioned to take a chance on the 40-year-old future Hall of Famer this winter.
He helped the Rangers to a World Series so he will always be a legend even if he barely pitched. Wouldn’t mind the Rangers bringing him back on a one year deal if the money is right.
The Rangers won the World Series in spite of Max Scherzer, not because of him. And I say this as a rather big fan of “Mad Max”.
When you make almost as many trips to the IL as you do to the mound, it’s time to call it a career and await your almost certain induction into the MLB HOF.
MLB fan: I agree with you, and one of the things that bothered me most about Max this year was seeing the presentation of his WS ring to him and Max dancing around with it as if he was the ace who pitched the game winner.
He’s a great pitcher, but he’s not doing them any favors.
“He’s a great pitcher”…Good points.
Sometimes I hate watching my favorite guys at the end of their careers.
They all begin to remind me of watching my all-time biggest favorite athlete, Muhammad Ali, at the end of his career. I almost cried watching Ali get knocked around and beat up by inferior boxers.
Yeah, that’s so true. And if I recall, Larry Homes delivered a beating to Ali near the end of Ali’s career, which was a foreshadowing of Holmes’ own decline when he fought against Tyson. It was sad that Ali never quite seemed to recover his classic movement after his match with the wrestler that kept kicking his legs.
They made the playoffs by one game. He was with 1 regular season WAR. If they don’t go get them it’s entirely possible they’re still waiting for that first banner.
Worth not with stupid autocorrect.
He is kaput.
Rich Hill, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander are sitting around a table this off-season.
Who do you think the phone rings for first?
I’m sure it’s hard to let go when you still have the passion and desire to keep playing even if you’re body disagrees with you.
Maybe it’s a showdown to see who bows out first between Scherzer and Verlander.
@Iron There has been some reported friction between the 2. They are currently ranked 10 and 11 All Time in Ks. I’m sure that plays a roll neither likely wants to not be in the top 10 especially with the other directly ahead of them.
They gave up a top prospect and dollars and he’s been exactly a 0.0 bWAR as a Ranger since. Were those 3 lone scoreless World Series innings (in which they won the game) before exiting really worth all this?
As a long-suffering Ranger fan of 50 years, the World Series victory was worth any price we paid.
Understand but , I guess, the question is” how did he help?”
We probably could have done it without him, but at the time the trade was made, we all thought it was a great deal for the Rangers.
Makes no sense to bring him back. The IL is his home away from home.
Go look at the stats, he didn’t contribute a whole lot.
Acuna trade looks Amazing!
Mets cut bait at the right time on max and JV it seems.
Can’t wait for Drew and cliffy
Hey Max, if you’re interested in a one or two year deal, contact C. Breslow, has he got a deal for you!
“Contact C. Breslow”..After trading away an almost certain CY Young winner(Sale)for an iffy SS(Grissom) with an uncertain future, Craig Breslow’s phone privileges have been revoked by the Redsox.
Red Sox are not giving him a two year deal. No team is. Any team taking a chance on him for next season is only offering an incentive laden contract.
What would the guarantee be? $10-15 million?
Scherzer has already pitched for 6 teams, Diamondbacks, Tigers, Nationals, Dodgers, Mets and Rangers. Will be interesting to see if he leaves the Rangers in FA and adds a 7th team to the list
It’s funny how he’s been in the league since 2008 but most of his hopping around has been since 2021.
Time to say goodbye Max. Your body doesn’t lie.
Can’t speak for the rest of em but I have it on good authority that one’s hips are the most truthful part of them all.
I could see him playing a season for his home town Cardinals…. Not saying it would be a good or smart idea. Just that I could see it happening.
I’m really hoping this happens and JV goes back to Detroit
Cooked
I can’t imagine he’d take that offer. A low base with bigger incentives maybe, but not $1M-$3M total.
And certainly not for the worst team since the AL was created.
Very Barry: The Sox might sign a future hall of famer for $1M, but not a penny more. I would hope Scherzer has more dignity than to end his career with this disaster of a franchise.
Even though I’m not old, it makes me feel old watching all of these guys who I remember breaking out around early-2010s start to wind their careers down.
Then we got guys like Jamie Moyer and Rich Hill have absurdly long careers while some of us in our mid 30s are waking up in the morning hearing our joints crack as we get out of bed lol
I’m seeing guys born the same year as my daughter reaching the end of their careers.
I’m also seeing guys we grew up watching as GMs, managers, coaches…and in some cases having ownership in teams. I better start taking Centrum Silvers lol
Certainly not my decision, but it appears it may be time to go. Good career.
At least three Hall of Fame starting pitchers all reaching the end within a year—Mad Max, Verlander, and Greinke. I wonder how much longer Kershaw will pitch.
Wow. Is he ever not injured.jfc.
No true major leaguer is going to the Sox for the minimum.
Another cooked pitcher.
All the best in retirement.
You Scher about that?
There is a heaven for injury prone pitchers and it is called Dodgers. They can’t have enough of them.
He’s still effective when he pitches, with the problem being he now rarely pitches. He’ll certainly have a market, but can Scherzer accept a more heavily incentive-laden deal based on innings and starts?
He should send Steve Cohen holiday cards every year to thank him for the 127MM balloon contract the last three years.
Everybody saying, “oh, but he won us a world series”… he really didn’t contribute a whole lot. 8 games in reg season, went 4-2 with 3.20 era, missed the 1st 2 rounds of playoffs, was 0-1 with 9.45 era in alcs, and pitched 3 innings in world seriesthose are NOT #1 ace carried u to world series #s
More specifically, he had wins the WS, Oakland, LAA, and TO, with losses against Mil & Houston. For a team with the best offense in the league, 4-2 isn’t exactly compelling against that competition.
There shouldn’t be a comma before “either,” Deeds. My goodness.