Feb 26, 2023: Upon exiting the Mets’ 6-3 win over the Nationals, Max Scherzer stopped to have a long conversation with home-plate umpire David Rackley. Over the previous two innings, Scherzer had experimented with different paces on the mound, hoping to gain an advantage from Major League Baseball’s new pitch timer. The right-hander struck out five batters while allowing one run on three hits.

“I can work extremely quick or I can work extremely slow,” Scherzer said. “There’s another layer here to try to mess with the hitter’s timing.”

Mostly, Scherzer wanted clarification from Rackley that he is allowed to begin his windup as soon as the clock hits eight seconds. Batters are required to be in the box and looking up at that point, so Scherzer on tried to come set before the eight-second mark, with designs on delivering as soon as the clock hit eight.

On other occasions, Scherzer deliberately held the ball longer so that hitters couldn’t anticipate him throwing every pitch at the same cadence.

“There’s a cat-mouse game,” Scherzer said. “There’s rules, and I’ll operate within whatever the rules are.” (A DiComo - MLB.com - Feb 26, 2023)

Feb 15, 2023: The first time Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer were together on a Major League roster, Verlander was 27 years old, Scherzer was 25, and life looked different. In the time between, Scherzer and his wife have had four children -- most recently a daughter, Nikki, born last month. Verlander married supermodel Kate Upton and had a daughter of his own. Scherzer has won three Cy Young Awards and a World Series ring; Verlander’s haul includes three Cys, an MVP and two titles.

Now, after more than eight years apart, the former Tigers teammates are back together on the Mets.

“We’re in a different stage of our careers, and more important, we’re in a different stage of our lives,” Scherzer said. “Things will definitely be different now.”

Then he added: “I really don’t see that being an issue whatsoever.”

“That” was an allusion to Scherzer’s past history with Verlander, including an oft-rumored schism between the two in Detroit. Whatever happened back then, whatever differences the two may have had, neither believes those will harm their relationship now. To the contrary, both seem genuinely curious -- if not downright excited -- to be together again. They lunched together, before reuniting  for the first day of pitcher and catcher workouts at Clover Park.

“Hey, it makes your ballclub better,” Scherzer said of the addition of Verlander on a two-year, $86.7 million contract, which matched his own league-record $43.3 million average annual value.

“I’m really looking forward to being together with him again,” added Verlander. “I think we could both look back at our time in Detroit together -- we had such an incredible team and weren’t able to achieve the ultimate goal. So hopefully, reunited here, we can achieve that.”

More than simply getting along, Scherzer and Verlander believe they can learn things from each other. They are each surefire Hall of Famers with different strengths and pitching philosophies, but perhaps -- as Mets manager Buck Showalter suggested -- more similarities than differences.

From afar, Scherzer has marveled at Verlander’s ability to transform his slider from an afterthought to one of baseball’s most potent pitches.

Verlander has watched Scherzer evolve at least as much, growing from a fastball-slider specialist to a bona fide five-pitch master. Justin Verlander's pitch breakdown, showing steadily increasing usage of his slider

Now leading the rotation in Queens, Verlander and Scherzer face parallel challenges: most notably, how to remain dominant at an age when most of their peers have either fallen off or retired.

Verlander is set to turn 40. (His wife, Upton, recently threw him a memorable surprise birthday party in Miami, including a cabaret show and an oversized cake).

Scherzer will be 39 in July. Since last crossing paths, the two have independently tried to unlock secrets of longevity.

In Verlander’s case, 2020 Tommy John surgery did little to derail his long-term outlook; he returned last summer to deliver one of the finest seasons of his career: 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA, the American League Cy Young Award and a World Series title. Scherzer wasn’t quite so fortunate, suffering multiple left oblique injuries that limited him to 145 1/3 innings, but he remained an elite pitcher when healthy.

Both worked out at the same Florida gym this offseason, albeit on diverging routines that prevented them from interacting much. Now, they are in the same clubhouse, on the same program, just a few lockers apart. If either manages to find the mythical Fountain of Youth, he can clue in the other.

Goodness knows, both men are trying. Verlander smiled when a reporter compared him to Tom Brady, who recently retired from the NFL at age 45. As an alternative, Verlander suggested the career arc of Jamie Moyer, who lasted in the Majors until age 49. It’s clear that Scherzer thinks similarly, even if he’s not suggesting it quite so overtly.

“You’re always one injury away from never pitching again,” Scherzer said. “I realize that. I’m lucky to have made it this far. To continue to pitch, it’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of things to go right.”

Scherzer added that his goal is to win a World Series, which is another thing he shares with Verlander. Independently, they’ve both already achieved it. Together, they’re only augmenting their chances to do it again. (A DiComo - MLB.com - Feb 15, 2023)

Scherzer starred in baseball, football and basketball at Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield, Missouri.

In 2003, Scherzer was drafted in the 43rd round by the Cardinals, out of high school in Chesterfield, Missouri. Being drafted by the home-town Cardinals fulfilled a boyhood dream. But, Max went to the University of Missouri instead. There, he was one of the best collegiate starting pitchers in the country. 

There, Max was a finance major. He is a very mathematical guy, and is also very interested in real estate.

His father, Brad, is a budget systems analyst for hospitals. A younger brother, Alex, is working on his undergraduate degree in business at Missouri and hopes to get his masters in business administration.

In 2007, his teammates with the Mobile Bay Bears nicknamed him "Max-a-Million."

After the 2007 season, pitching in the Arizona Fall League, Scherzer went 1-1, 2.13 ERA in 13 innings out of the bullpen for the Scottsdale Scorpions. He struck out 18, walked five, and allowed six hits.

In 2008, Baseball America rated Scherzer as the 4th-best prospect in the Diamondbacks' organization.

Scherzer has unique multicolored eyes. He has heterochromia. His right eye is blue, his left eye brown. It stems from "genetic mosaicism," meaning in each eye he inherited different pigmentation.

Scherzer has company, lots of it. A short list of those with heterochromia includes: Dan Aykroyd, Christopher Walken, Jane Seymour, Kate Bosworth, Kiefer Sutherland, and Alexander the Great.

"I have fun with it," he said, insisting he hasn't grown tired, or irked, after thousands of curious questions. "It's something that makes me unique. I embrace it."

Max says his younger brother, Alex, a business economics major at Missouri, got him interested in baseball's deeper statistics. Scherzer said they had a months-long debate after Alex told him a pitcher has no control once a batter hits the ball.

"It took about a year of arguing with him for me to realize that actually is the correct way to think," said Scherzer.

Now, Max scrutinizes some very detailed websites that chart and graph every pitch and some that even detail the tendencies of each umpires' strike zone.

LOSES HIS BROTHER

Max's brother Alex died June 21, 2012. Alex was only 24, and had just graduated from the University of Missouri with an MBA and a job with Morgan Stanley in St. Louis. Alex committed suicide.

"He had so many positive things ahead in his life, which makes this tragedy even harder to swallow," Scherzer said, reading his statement. "Alex made this world a better place, and anybody I have ever talked to that knew him could only say how much fun they had being around him. Alex was the best brother I could have asked for, and he will always be missed."

Alex was his brother's biggest fan, as well as maybe his biggest antagonist. When Max first became a Tiger, and his fascination with numbers and statistics became apparent, he said it was Alex who got him into it. 

"He got me into that type of thinking," he said. "I remember arguing with him, 'There's just no way that can be right.' You only see baseball from the mound. You never thought you could put a number on it or evaluate it from a different angle. And yet, probably for a year, he kept chipping away at me and saying, 'See? Look at this. I called it.' Finally, I was like, 'You're onto something.' There were some other driving forces to what makes a successful pitcher beyond just the normal scouting reports, executing pitches and all that.

"That was a part of the game that we shared, to have that type of mind to be able to see it from both sides. No one way is right. That's I think [what] he brought to me.

"He wasn't just book smart. He was street smart, too. Everybody who knows him, that's the one word that resonates with everybody is brilliance. He had a dry sense of humor, but it was brilliant the way he used it. Any conversation you had, he had an uncanny way to always make you think he was right."

At night, in moments of anxiousness or hopefulness, Max still reaches for his cell phone, wanting to talk to Alex. He'll find himself in a hotel room, tired after another stunning start for the Tigers, and wonder what Alex thought of the outing. Or he'll be at his condominium in Arizona, watching cable news, and think of a question only Alex could answer. Many months later, he can still see his little brother. Tall, handsome, with that goofy smile.

Alex, too, would reach for the phone whenever he had something to tell Max. He'd peck out a message, if only to let his brother know he was thinking about him. Back in September 2011, Max had struggled through a few starts. After one outing, in which he gave up several bloop hits, Max wondered what he'd done to deserve such bad luck. Alex typed a brief message: "If there's anything I've taught you, it's that #1 [s---] happens, #2 the non-scientific meaning is that you've now banked your juju for the playoffs."

Max hasn't deleted that text or the hundreds of others from Alex. He'll never remove his brother's number from his call list. In that phone are their lives together, moments precious now because they can never be recaptured. Publicly Max rarely discusses Alex. In fact, he says so little about his brother that his parents, Brad and Jan, worry about him, and how he's coping. Max simply tells them that he wants to focus on his starts, knowing that a solid outing will give his parents a brief reprieve from their grief.

But at night he doesn't stay so mentally vigilant, and if only for a second, when he needs the comfort, he tricks himself into thinking Alex is there, has a phone in his hands, is ready to talk one more time.

Scherzer is known for keeping up a pretty strenuous workout routine between starts. He's pretty good at fighting off the monotony, too.

A day after Scherzer delivered six innings, he was on the field at Comerica Park playing catch early, well before batting practice. Instead of simply tossing the ball around with strength and conditioning coach Javair Gillett, however, he was running wide receiver patterns and getting in some agility work.

Later, he was long-tossing from various points around the left-field and third-base stands, running the steps in between.

Scherzer said he has done the patterns for a while. He has always liked running the ballpark steps for stair work, but throwing in-between allows him to do two activities at once.

June 24, 2013: Scherzer became the first Major League starter to go 11-0 to start a season since Roger Clemens in 1997. Scherzer became the fastest Tigers pitcher to reach double-digit wins since Jack Morris won his 10th game in the 63rd game of the 1987 season. Detroit has never had a starter win his first 11 decisions to begin a season.

Scherzer is known around the Tigers clubhouse for his smart, outgoing personality—and his willingness to engage teammates in good-natured debate about pretty much any sport he can think of.

"He's the president of all pools. The March Madness, NBA Finals, the golf, Kentucky Derby—any kind of Derby, anything," outfielder Torii Hunter said. "Hot dog-eating contest. I mean, he has a bracket for everything, and it's perfect.

"Scherzer is definitely one of the smart guys in the clubhouse who can run things, but he's a lot of fun. He's funny, he's always keeping the guys interacting."

On January 9, 2012, it was announced that Scherzer would be one of six new inductees to the University of Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame. While at Mizzou, he was Big 12 Pitcher of the Year in 2005. He was Mizzou's first-ever 1st round MLB pick.

In 2013, everything came together for Scherzer, not just on the field. He has put together the kind of season kids dream about, nearly unbeatable for the better part of the year.

"You always hope in this game that good things happen to good people," Scherzer's agent, Scott Boras, said. "And 2013 has been a good year for Max Scherzer."

Scherzer not only made his first All-Star Game, but started it. With the chance to become a free agent at the end of the 2014 season, he has put himself in position to set his family for life, whether he stays in Detroit or goes elsewhere.  The winter after the 2013 season, he married his longtime girlfriend, Erica May, near his offseason home in Arizona, in the shadow of Camelback Mountain, which he climbs every week as part of his offseason workout routine. He has become the spokesperson for the movement to save wild tigers, a cause close to his fiancee's heart, through the Fish and Wildlife Commission and the Save Vanishing Species Tiger Stamp sold at Comerica Park. His blue-eyed, brown-eyed face is recognizable to all baseball fans.

Yes, 2013 is also the year he learned to let himself enjoy it. "I'm just enjoying life," he said. "I'm just having more fun this year. Everything I do, I'm just making sure I enjoy it to the fullest and just trying to have fun. And whatever happens, happens. I always look to have a positive outlook on life."

Asked if that was something he learned to do more after last summer, Scherzer paused. "Maybe," he said.

He's reluctant to talk about the death of his young brother, Alex, who took his own life in May of 2012. To watch him go about this dream season, however, shows a guy who has learned to appreciate each day and everything that comes with it.

In 2012, as he was preparing to go into the postseason, he talked about his outlook on baseball as producing joy for others: "The way I look at baseball now," he said at the time, "is it puts a smile on all my friends' and family's faces. Everybody, Tigers fans, everybody enjoys the game. Everybody enjoys watching us play and how much a smile it puts on a kid's face, us just going out there playing baseball and how much it means to everybody. When you're able to do that, that's what matters most."

He doesn't deflect pressure so much as he seems to flip it around. In that sense, he and Justin Verlander aren't that much different.

"I'm really proud of him," Verlander said. "He's that guy that every year people said, 'He could excel this year, he's got the talent to do it if he puts it together.' And this year, he put it together. It's been a lot of fun for all of us to watch. He did a great job just worrying about pitching and not letting the extra stuff get to him."

Scherzer will never let extra stuff take away from his focus on pitching. He talks about staying humble, but he also talks about his constant drive to improve, because he knows things could change in an instant. No player on the Tigers arguably knows more about numbers than Scherzer, a business economics major at Missouri. He learned about advanced metrics from Alex when he was in college, and he learned through his career how numbers can change.

"You never stay the same," Scherzer said. "You either get better or you get worse. For me, I'm always locked in on getting better." (10/02/13)

In 2013, Scherzer won the AL Cy Young after he led the Majors in wins, finished second in strikeouts (240), and third in WHIP (0.97). Yu Darvish of the Rangers finished second.

In the offseason, Max focuses on his legs and does a little lifting and running.

"Living in Arizona, I have the luxury to bike outside. I use my local surroundings to my advantage and run Camelback Mountain in Scottsdale about once a week," Scherzer said.

Max is superstitious.

Just how superstitious, he revealed at the Baseball Writers Association of America’s annual awards dinner in New York in January 2014. Max was there to accept his 2013 AL Cy Young Award.

After thanking his friends, family and teammates, he thanked retired Fox broadcaster Tim McCarver, who, during an interview early last season told Scherzer he was going to win the award.

“I was like well, you know, that could happen,’” Scherzer said. “ Well, I’m here now. So obviously he looks brilliant.”

So, too, does Scherzer’s belt choice throughout last season. He relayed an anecdote about a “lucky belt” he wore during his early season winning streak and how, before a game in Cleveland, he thought the belt was missing.

“I’m getting ready for the game and I’m looking for my belt and I can’t find my belt,” he said. “I mean, I’m panicking. Where is my lucky belt, where is my lucky belt.

“I go to the bat boy and I’m like, ‘Where’s my lucky belt?’ He comes to my locker and he grabs me one of the other belts and says, ‘You have a belt right here.’ I’m like, ‘That’s not my lucky belt!’ Sure enough, we tear through my locker and sure enough, it’s down in there and we find it and sure enough, that night in Cleveland, when I had my lucky belt and Tim McCarver had his prediction, I was going to win.” (Anthony Fenech - 1/28/14)

Max's wife is a vegetarian.

Under eye color on his drivers license it has the abbreviation "DIC" for dichromatic.

2015 Spring Training: Max Scherzer was warming up in the bullpen, getting ready to head onto the field to throw his first batting practice session for the Washington Nationals.

So before Scherzer could leave the bullpen, he turned to manager Matt Williams, who was standing near him.

Williams hummed "The Star-Spangled Banner" for him.

"It's Max's thing," Williams said. "He always takes that break for the national anthem when he prepares to go start a game. He wanted to take the break, so we hummed it for him and made him feel comfortable in that regard so he could go out and do his live BP."  

So before Scherzer could leave the bullpen, he turned to manager Matt Williams, who was standing near him. Williams hummed "The Star-Spangled Banner" for him.

"It's Max's thing," Williams said. "He always takes that break for the national anthem when he prepares to go start a game. He wanted to take the break, so we hummed it for him and made him feel comfortable in that regard so he could go out and do his live BP." (By Carl Kotala)

May 22, 2015: Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond figured out what makes teammate Max Scherzer the competitor that he is.

Desmond realized that Scherzer wants to be more than just a great pitcher. Scherzer wants to be an all-around athlete. He wants to get better at the plate as well as having great instincts while running the bases.

"I just go out there and compete as long as I can," Scherzer said. "That's why I love being a starting pitcher. I love going out there and giving everything I got. When I go deep in the game, it helps a ballclub even more. That's something I take pride in." (B Ladson - MLB.com - May 23, 2015)

In 2015, Scherzer was selected to his third All-Star Game, his first with Nationals.

Max started the Nationals' most-of-2015 tradition of dousing whomever produced a game-winning, walk-off victory in chocolate syrup.

It started on April 28 in Atlanta. The Nats rallied from an 8-run deficit to win 13-12 when Dan Uggla's 3-run home run brought the victory. During his post-game interview, Scherzer sprayed Uggla with chocolate syrup.

"It was something that just happened on the spur of the moment," Max said. "After we came back and won, I was like, 'We have to give him something.' I ran into the clubhouse and the thing I saw immediately in the fridge was that chocolate syrup. So I grabbed it,"

May 13, 2016: Two days after Max Scherzer tied the MLB record by striking out 20 batters in a nine-inning game, he took some time out of his schedule to pose at the greatest possible intersection in Washington, D.C. That's right, he was at the corner of 20th Street and K Street. 

Turns out the District was the perfect setting for baseball's latest 20-strikeout game. (M Clair - MLB.com - May 13, 2016)

During the 2015 off-season, Max bought a dog (Rocco) with two different colored eyes to match his. (Intentional Talk - May 2016)

Max's wife played softball at the University of Missouri.

July 8, 2016: The joy was all over Max Scherzer's face after he was told he was replacing teammate Stephen Strasburg on the National League All-Star team.

Nationals manager Dusty Baker, who suggested to NL manager Terry Collins that Scherzer should be on the team for the 2016 All-Star Game, was excited when he heard the news.

"I'm excited for the organization and Max is excited," Baker said. "I've never seen a veteran get more elated. He is a good representative to show people what a privilege and an honor it is to go."

Scherzer will be appearing in his fourth All-Star Game. Scherzer didn't pitch in last year's game because he had pitched two days prior against the Orioles. This time, he hopes to pitch one inning.

"I was so pumped," Scherzer said. "The All-Star Games are so much fun to go to. It's one of the highest recognitions you can get. When I heard the news, I was going to replace Stras ... I was really happy. It's the best All-Star Game of any sport.

"This is a real game where you are going to see the best of the best. Something is on the line—home-field advantage for the World Series is on the line. The pitcher is coming out throwing gas, you get to see the best hitters in the world. It's a real baseball game. It's awesome to be a part of. " (B Ladson - MLB.com - July 9, 2016)

Scherzer loves to scuba dive—he says it's one of the safe enough recreational activities he can do as a professional athlete—and he and his wife, Erica, often do so on vacation. Like the Cubs' Kris Bryant, Scherzer has gone swimming with sharks: "We dive with sharks. We dive with everything," he said. "I did an unbelievable shark dive in Fiji, with like 15 bull sharks swimming around." In 2010, he also wanted to dive the Great Barrier Reef while visiting a friend in Sydney—but he didn't realize the reef was more than 1,000 miles away. (David Adler - MLB.com - 2016)

Remember Scherzer's second no-hitter (second of the season and second of his career) back in 2015? So, of course, Scherzer saved the jersey from the game and kept it at his house. Although, he apparently didn't keep it in a safe enough place or, um, wash it, because his wife thought it was trash and threw it into the garbage. 

Nov 18, 2016: Once his name was announced, the room erupted in cheer and Max was sprayed with champagne. They were sitting on a boat in the middle of the British Virgin Islands—an annual trip between college friends and their wives—while on a video call with MLB Network when they found out Scherzer had just been named the 2016 NL Cy Young Award winner by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

It was the second career Cy Young Award for Scherzer, who also won the American League version of the award in 2013 with the Tigers. He became just the sixth pitcher in baseball history to win the award in both leagues. Scherzer received 25 of the 30 first-place votes and 192 points overall to best Cubs teammates Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks, who finished second and third, respectively.

"For some reason, this just means so much more to me," Scherzer said during a video call from the middle of the ocean. "It just verifies everything I try to go out there and set out to achieve. The best is that I try to go out there and do it. By winning the second one, it confirms that everything I try to do works."

"For me, it's a culmination of everything," Scherzer said. "From the coaching staff, how they prepared us, that I was able to do it with both [catchers Wilson Ramos] and [Jose Lobaton], everybody together in unison, competing at the same level when I took the mound, to go out there and actually do it.

"Consistently I was able to do what I was capable of. I know I have to change my game. I would like to get better. I'd like to get better in 2017. But to win this award, there's so much history to it, so much meaning to it." (J Collier - MLB.com - Nov 18, 2016)

Dec 16, 2016: It was an easy decision for Max to pitch in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, even though he led the National League in innings in 2016 and has thrown at least 214 innings every season since 2013.

"When Jim Leyland calls and asks me to play, you don't say no," Scherzer said, referring to his former Tigers manager and the skipper for Team USA.

Scherzer played under Leyland and pitching coach Jeff Jones, who will also coach Team USA, for four seasons from 2010-2013. Scherzer has called Leyland one of his favorite managers of all-time, and he was excited to play under them again this spring. Scherzer was also enticed by the opportunity to represent Team USA after watching from afar and seeing the passionate fan bases and the atmosphere at the stadiums.

"I still don't know exactly when those games exactly happen or how much they're asking of me," he said. "I've just seen different games and videos where the fans are going crazy—especially in the Latin American countries—so it just seems like such an environment like that is what I want to pitch in. I'm not planning on doing anything different until I really find out the details of where they need me to be," Scherzer said. "But for me, it's just where I'm at in my throwing program." (J Collier - MLB.com - Dec 16, 2016)

January 9, 2017: It was discovered that Scherzer had a stress fracture on the knuckle of his right ring finger. The rehab process for that finger forced him to withdraw from pitching for Team USA in this year's World Baseball Classic.

When you can't decide which is cooler—a no-hitter or a 20-strikeout game—and you've done both, that's a pretty good indicator that your Major League career is coming along quite nicely.  That's an obvious understatement for a pitcher of Max's stature, given he is only the second pitcher in Major League history with a resume that includes a no-hitter and a 20-strikeout game. Scherzer shares the distinction with Hall of Famer Randy Johnson.

Scherzer, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner from 2016, was the recipient of two Esurance MLB Awards in 2016, for Best Pitcher and Best Pitching Performance, the latter recognizing his 20-strikeout game. This was Scherzer's second award for Best Performance, having won in 2015 for his Oct. 3 no-hitter against the Mets.

Max has won a Cy Young Award in both leagues. In 2015, he threw two no-hitters, becoming just the fifth pitcher in history to throw two no-nos in the same season. In 2017, he led all active starting pitchers with a career 9.98 strikeouts per nine innings, and he's one of four active pitchers with 200 strikeouts in five consecutive seasons.

He's been asked on more than one occasion which was more exciting, his no-hitters or the 20-strikeout game? Scherzer gives obvious credence to both, but leans toward the latter as perhaps his top personal accomplishment so far.

"The more I've gotten away from each moment, I'm able to appreciate more the history of each accomplishment," he said. "The 20 strikeouts, it was so cool to be able to go out there and do that. I just remember that game just being locked, filling up the zone, constantly being in 0-2 counts and executing pitches. That one, I'll always remember." (Footer - mlb.com - 4/6/17)

As a follow-up to Max's winning the NL Cy Young Award in 2016, Scherzer had been perhaps the most dominant pitcher in the NL through 2017's first half. The reward for his sustained excellence is a starting nod for the NL in the 2017 MLB All-Star Game.

"It's unbelievable to get the nod. This is such an incredible accomplishment," Scherzer said. "When you walk in this clubhouse and you're with all the All-Stars, you're already singled to be in that clubhouse with that recognition. When you have a manger say, 'Hey we're going to give you the ball,' it's icing on the cake."  (Collier - mlb.com - 7/9/17)

The sign said, "I'm proud to have the same eyes as my role model, #31, Max Scherzer." It's hardly a shock to see Scherzer pitch well, but perhaps he was given extra motivation by the young fan in the stands holding that sign. Although he was playing in enemy territory at Citi Field, New York, this kid was there for his idol.

Max looked to be in tip-top shape for the postseason during the Nationals' 3-2 win against the Mets. He earned the victory.  Once Scherzer saw a picture of this fan, he simply had to respond on Twitter: "There we go!  1 blue, 1 brown. Now that's my #1 fan!"

Scherzer has always been a friend to those who also have multi-colored eyes (even dogs), so it's awesome to see him continue these bonds with more fans like this kid. That's a role model, for sure.  (Mearns - mlb.com - 9/26/17)

Max is well-known for several reasons.  But even more interestingly, Scherzer’s eyes gather a lot of attention. With one brown eye and one blue, the pitcher gains even more publicity. About 11 in every 1,000 Americans possess this condition, known as heterochromia.

Now the Nationals are marketing the rarity by selling customized M&Ms inspired by their ace pitcher. Vendors are selling bags filled with brown- and blue-colored chocolate candies during playoffs. Each candy has a “K” in the middle of it as well. (Kyle Cardoza - FanSided - Oct.7, 2017)

Nov 26, 2017: The last thing most of us want the day after Thanksgiving is for a giant cake to appear. After eating to max capacity just the day before, a big pile of sweetness doesn't sound as appealing as it usually would.

That said, we've found one exception to that rule. Fredericksburg Cupcake in Northern Virginia created a cake that not only celebrates Max Scherzer's three Cy Young Awards but looks delicious as well.

As hard as it will be to cut into such a beautiful work of art, it will be well worth it if it tastes even a fraction as good as it looks.  (E Chesterston - MLB.com - Nov 25, 2017)

Nov. 29, 2017: The Scherzers' November just got even better after Max won his third Cy Young Award earlier in the month, he and his wife, Erica May-Scherzer, announced the birth of their first child. Welcome the adorable and tiny Brooklyn to the world.

April 11, 2018: Scherzer held Atlanta to two hits and struck out 10 in the ninth complete game of his career and his fifth career shutout. He did not issue a walk and did not permit a runner to reach second base.

Max even added his first career stolen base in the seventh inning, swiping second base without a throw after catching the Braves off guard. Scherzer joined Nolan Ryan (May 16, 1984, against the Pirates) as the only other hurler in the live-ball era (since 1920) to pitch a shutout, strike out at least 10 batters, and steal a base in one game.

July 2018: Max will start the game for the second consecutive year and third in his career, getting the nod to pitch in front of his home crowd and ballpark at Nationals Park. He will become the 12th pitcher to start an All-Star Game at his home ballpark and the first since Matt Harvey did so for the Mets in the Midsummer Classic at Citi Field in 2013 (a game Scherzer started for the American League).

Jan 18, 2019: Scherzer's number was retired by the University of Missouri. Max is already one of Missouri’s most famous baseball alumni, as the Nationals pitcher is considered one of the best in the major leagues. 

Feb 2019: Scherzer is ranked No. 1 starting pitcher by MLB Network. Max still stands out in terms of consistent dominance year after year.

July 3-5, 2019: Max is on the paternity list. Scherzer is allowed to spend up to three days away from the team while he and his wife, Erica, are expecting the birth of their second child.

July 7, 2019: Max was selected to pitch in the All-Star Game, but was replaced by the Reds Sonny Gray on the NL roster. Scherzer, who pitched seven scoreless innings in a 6-0 win over the Royals, did not appear in Midsummer Classic, but he was expected to travel to Cleveland and participate in All-Star festivities.

July 9, 2019:  This was the seventh straight year Max had been invited to the All-Star Game, but this experience was different from the rest. His daughter Brooklyn, who was born in Nov. 2017, came along for the ride for her first All-Star Game, waving to fans during the All-Star parade before making an appearance on the red carpet.

“This one was really special because I got to have my daughter,” Scherzer said prior to the game. “I never thought of that when I had my first All-Star Game, but here I am in my seventh and yet I get to have a whole new experience. That was absolutely amazing. That’s why I love coming here.”

Scherzer remembered his first All-Star Game, on the way to winning his first Cy Young award in 2013. He started for the American League that year and remembers sharing a clubhouse with the likes of Torii Hunter, David Ortiz and Mariano Rivera.

When he glanced around the National League clubhouse this year, however, he noticed something. Scherzer, who turns 35 in July 2019, was the old guy in the room now. The average age in the National League’s starting lineup is 25.8 years old. Scherzer even joked that he looked around for D-backs starter Zack Greinke to see if there was anyone as old as him in the room.

“It’s just funny how it’s changed,” Scherzer said. “And how I’m kind of it in that position.”

Indeed, Scherzer is now a pitcher with three Cy Young awards under his belt, making a strong case for a fourth with his excellent first half, with seven straight All-Star appearances, being named the starting pitcher in three different years and carrying the unofficial title as the best pitcher in baseball. But this all never gets old for Scherzer, who soaked up the 2019 All-Star Game like it was his first.

“Every year I come to this it’s such an amazing event,” he said. “The seventh one is just as special as the first one.” (Collier - mlb.com)

Sept. 2019: Scherzer was a bit of a late bloomer, leaving him behind the Cooperstown curve, but that’s a distant memory as he nears the end of an age-34 season that has seen him blow past 2,500 strikeouts and near 60 WAR. The righty already had a strong argument, pre-2019, based on a six-season peak that featured multiple no-hitters, a 20-strikeout game, three Cy Young Awards, and three strikeout titles. He now has a shot at joining Clemens, Randy Johnson, Steve Carlton and Greg Maddux as the only four-time Cy Young winners.

2019 Season: At first glance, looking exactly like a rich, famous, beloved celebrity would be a great thing. You get to skip out on all the hard work it took to reach that point, and instead you simply get to live it up. You don't even really need to pretend, you simply just don't correct people when they say, "Please, I couldn't accept payment for this pizza from you, Extremely Famous Person," or "Could you please come to my daughter's wedding and eat all the free food and drink the free drinks? Your presence would just make us all so happy."

But you are so very, very wrong. Being a celebrity doppelganger is really just the world's biggest hassle. Case in point: There is this dude, who just so happens to look exactly like Max Scherzer:

He's Kevin Kramer, an Arlington, Va., man who does look pretty similar to the pitcher. He's got the nose down. His general face shape is about right. And, despite saying that he's not an impersonator, he bought the contact lenses necessary to pull off Scherzer's heterochromatic eyes. 

Nationals fans who have been caught up in the revelry and have maybe consumed a few too many glasses of celebratory champagne certainly think they look alike. Which means Kramer has become a bit of a local celebrity.

Kramer's been stopped for photos, has been asked to throw out first pitches at rec league games and even needed a police escort to attend the Nationals World Series parade. A police officer told me they were helping get this guy through the crowd because a lot of people thought he looked like a very well-known player. 

For once in your life, you're the star. People are clapping for you, they're cheering for you. You feel like a big deal. But what do you do when you have to go to the bathroom? What about if you want a hot pretzel? Sure, you could leave your escorts behind, but then you'll be faced with an entire sea of screaming fans who either know you aren't Max Scherzer and still want a photo with you, or think you're Max Scherzer and demand to know why you're not on stage with everyone else. (CUT4 - MLB.com - Nov 5, 2019)  

Nov. 2019: Baseball had never before had an official star squad that salutes a full season's worth of work the way other major professional sports do. But the results of the voting for the first All-MLB Team finally arrived at the Winter Meetings. The Nationals Scherzer was named to the first team starting pitching group.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Max had a new April activity. Arts and crafts were a part of his daily routine.  He was adjusting to his revised schedule while baseball was delayed due.  Instead of long days at the ballpark, he was spending time in Florida with his family.

“Train in the morning, nap time in the afternoon, then being dad the rest of the night,” Scherzer said. 

The Scherzer home was busy.  Max's wife, Erica, underwent labrum surgery and his mother-in-law was there to help with their two young daughters. The household doubled in size with the addition of a former teammate and his family.

“This is a good story,” Scherzer said. “[Orioles catcher] Bryan Holaday, we’re good friends, and our wives are even probably better friends. When he came over and played [the Nats] in Spring Training, they were hanging out with us. And then all the virus stuff and the shutdown was going on, and we kind of just said, ‘Hey, if you guys want to stay.’… So we’ve got four kids going on, four dogs.

“We’ve got a whole little makeshift weight room that we work out at. We play catch, we run, we do everything. So here in our house down in Florida, we’re having a good old time.”

Scherzer said he is reminded of what he and the Nats accomplished in 2019 in random ways. He doesn’t necessarily have to be on the mound to appreciate their feat.  “A Katy Perry song comes on, and it’s ‘Roar,’ and all of a sudden it says, ‘I am a champion,’” Scherzer said. “Like, ‘Yeah, I am a champion.’ All of a sudden, the song comes in a little bit better. It’s little moments like that where you recognize different things, what that means to win a World Series, being a champion, something we’ll always be able to say.”  (Camerato - mlb.com - 4/2/2020)

April 17, 2020: Scherzer is one of the most intense players in MLB. He's also involved, a combination that could make him a solid future manager. The three-time Cy Young Award winner doesn’t do things “halfway.” (Even his bullpen sessions at the start of Spring Training were in high gear.) Scherzer has achieved a level of success over his 12-year playing career that would give him a wealth of knowledge to impart on a team. He already does that on a smaller scale in the Nationals' clubhouse, too, pulling together groups of pitchers as they soak up his information.

Scherzer, 35, has experience representing a team when he’s not on the mound. He is adept at league-wide issues as the Nats’ rep for the MLB Players Association and as a member of its executive subcommittee. (J Camerato - MLB.com - April 17, 2020)

With a black eye and a busted nose as the result of his own errant bunt attempt, Max knew he was in for it from his teammates. At one point, he found a sign near his locker, along with a football helmet, that read: "If you try bunting tonight ... PLEASE do us all a favor and wear this."

The Nats took full advantage of the chance to talk trash to Scherzer because the ultra-competitor is usually the one dishing it out. Max pulls no punches, from swearing and muttering to himself on the mound to the clubhouse pools he takes pride in dominating to the batting cage, where he constantly pesters hitting coach Kevin Long and other Nats’ position players about their approach at the plate.

Scherzer even took pride in beating a team broadcaster in a game of Connect Four. If Scherzer can turn it into a competition, he will not hesitate. And the back-and-forth trash talking is what he relishes. (MLB.com - Apr. 29, 2020)

Max had somewhere to be after the game.  They were very important, pre-scheduled plans, too.  So he efficiently dominated with a nine-inning, one-run victory in two hours and 37 minutes against the Marlins, and then he made a quick exit from Nationals Park.

Scherzer’s wife, Erica, was going into labor with their third child.  “After the game, we talked a little bit and he was like, ‘I’m having the baby tonight, might as well pitch like that,’” catcher Yan Gomes said following the Nats’ 3-1 victory.

“Any time someone can bring a kid into the world, it’s pretty cool,” said a rally helmet-wearing Ryan Zimmerman, who gave Scherzer offensive support with a three-run homer in the third inning. “For him to go a complete game and pitch the way he did today and then go over and have a baby with his wife, pretty cool day for him. We’re happy for him. He never ceases to amaze, I guess is the best way to put it.”  (Camerato - mlb.com - 5/2/2021)

 May 2, 2021: Max's father's intuition is pretty strong, apparently.

The Nationals defeated the Marlins 3-1 in a game that began at 1:05 p.m. ET.  The game lasted just two hours and 37 minutes, with Scherzer throwing the 12th complete game of a career that's likely headed for Cooperstown.

Max delivers, then heads to delivery room. Nationals ace pitched a five-hitter, then immediately joined wife for birth of third child

It's like Scherzer knew he had a limited period of time to work with, because his wife gave birth to their third child less than two hours after the game concluded.  Derek Alexander was born at 5:38 p.m.

“It was pretty crazy,” Scherzer said.  “I kind of like it that way.  My wife, Erica, did, too.  She likes it like that.  She didn’t mind going to the hospital while everything was going on.  It was even better to come back with a win.”

When Scherzer was named the Nationals’ Opening Day starter, Erica, began putting the wheels in motion to select a date for a C-section the following month.  Ideally, it would coincide with one of Scherzer’s starts to have built-in off-days after that.  He looked ahead in the schedule with manager Dave Martinez and determined a 5:30 p.m. appointment on May 2, following a 1:05 p.m. ET start vs. Miami, would do the job.

“We saw the weather coming into it that it was going to be good, so there really wasn’t any concern,” Scherzer said. “I wasn’t underneath any pressure. I just knew that once the game was over, all right, it's time to go directly to the hospital so there wasn’t too much of a panic.  When you get to the hospital, it’s all smiles from there,” Scherzer said. “Everything went as planned. The doctors did great, and my wife did even better.”

Scherzer has been reporting to Nationals Park to get in throwing ahead of his next start against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on May 8, 2021.  But he’s been kept busy at home on dad duty for his two daughters as Erica, who he refers to as “the rock of the household” and “my better half,” recovers.  “There’s a lot of chasing around, let’s say that,” he said.  (Camerato - mlb.com - 5/6/2021)

July 2021: Scherzer was selected to his eighth All-Star Game, but this time as a reserve.

2022 Q&A with Max Scherzer:

MLB.com: When I watch you pitch, you are intense and it’s fierce. Where did you get the intensity?

Max Scherzer: I don’t know. I always had it. I always enjoyed competing, playing and going as hard as I can. I thought it really came out when I was younger in other sports with other coaches. For me, I point to high school basketball playing for Coach [Rick] Kirby. I get to say his name again. I’m so happy about that. I get to say it, my favorite coach, Kirby. He was my high school basketball coach [at Parkway Central High School in Chesterfield, Mo.].

MLB.com: Why is he your favorite coach?

Scherzer: The way we played basketball. The intensity we played at, the defense we played, the team we had, that was … if you like how I pitch on the mound, you should have seen how I played some basketball.

MLB.com: Because every time I see you, Max, it’s like you are in another world. It’s like you are so focused on the field.

Scherzer: That’s where I tune out everything. I’m completely locked into my job. My job is to pitch. So I don’t let anything bring me up or bring me down. I’m not going to let the [opposing] offense … affect my job. I go out there and attack the other team. That works for me. Leave me alone. I’ll do my thing and once I come out, trust me, I’ll be pulling for everybody and I’ll have fun with everybody else.  

MLB.com: You are a member of the Mets. Describe what it is like to live in the Big Apple?

Scherzer: This is wild. Having played in New York so many times in my career and now to be on the home side of this, this is pretty cool to have the New York fan base behind you instead of against you. I love when you have moments like that. For me, that’s the most exciting part to have the fans support you.

MLB.com: Compare living in New York to D.C., Detroit, Los Angeles and Arizona?

Scherzer: Every city has its own characteristics and own energy. You can’t compare any city to any city. Everybody has their own attitude. I feel like I know New York pretty well. I played against New York so much during my career. I definitely know, with the Mets, all you need to know about is 1986. 

MLB.com: You are into analytics. What is the one stat you look at carefully and why?

Scherzer: You have to take every stat with a grain of salt. Baseball is not just about numbers. It’s not just about analytics. There is a lot of feel to this. You can look at every analytic, pitch metric, it doesn’t take away from what actually happens on the field. For me, you have to have a blend between what I call reality and then what’s going on with the analytics. You have to be able to merge the two together.  But if there is a number I want to pride myself on, it's first-pitch strikes. I love throwing strike one. You show me that number and the people that lead [in that statistic], that’s right in my DNA.       

MLB.com: Can the eye test work? 

Scherzer: Oh yeah, 100 percent. I would lead with the eye test. Your eyes are reality.

MLB.com: You never had a major injury. What have you done to stay healthy?

Scherzer: Everything – training, mechanics, weight room. Everything you do in the offseason, in season, everything adds up.

MLB.com: What advice would you give young pitchers? It seems like young pitchers are always getting Tommy John surgery.

Scherzer: That’s a complicated question. Just how guys are developed now is the reason why we see more injuries in younger arms—from mechanics to pitch counts to everything. I feel everybody gets wrapped up in someone’s pitch count. It’s never the pitch count. It’s the amount of rest you get after your workload.

So you can throw 100 pitches, 110, 120. All those numbers are fine. It’s not the number that day, it’s how much rest you get behind it. To me, I feel sometimes ... by pulling pitchers early, 80 pitches to try to protect their arm, I don’t think that necessarily protects their arm because you are not pushing them to the limit and building a foundation underneath them. To develop that foundation takes time and you have to push the limit and then you need to rest. It’s the recovery [that's key to health].

If you can consistently push your pitch counts and then get rest behind it, that's how you build a foundation. Another reason I’ve been able to display durability in my career is because I thought I was built right . When I was 19, 21, 22, I was exposed to high pitch counts, but I also had the rest behind it to be able to it. I feel like that model has served me well.

MLB.com: The Mets are off to a good start and I know it’s early. How good are they?

Scherzer: It’s a good start. That all it means. It’s a really long season, so we have to continue to play great baseball a lot longer if we want to accomplish our goals. 

MLB.com: What has been impressive so far?

Scherzer: How well we have played as a team—good pitching, timely hitting, good defense. We have a good bullpen. Everybody has had a hand in our [great start]. It’s not just one guy. It’s not just once facet of our game. I feel it’s the whole clubhouse having good contributions everywhere. That’s what it takes to win.

MLB.com: What is it like to play for Buck Showalter?

Scherzer: This has been a lot of fun, having Buck be on your side. He is relentlessly prepared. He’s locked in. He also has a good sense of humor, too. This is Jim Leyland 2.0, for me.

MLB.com: You have accomplished a lot over the years. What is the one thing you are most proud of?

Scherzer: Winning the World Series in 2019 with Washington. The best feeling I ever had. Everyone dreams to be in that position. Ever since you were a little kid, you dream of winning the World Series. To be on a team that goes out and does it, that’s just an absolute, lifelong dream to have that moment. I’m so happy to have that moment.

MLB.com: How much do you have left in the tank? What goals do you have? I know you want to win another World Series.

Scherzer: That’s it [about winning the World Series]. I have my blinders up and I just go forward. I don’t try to get caught up with any other accomplishments. I’m not here for [personal] results. For me, I focus on the process, what it takes to go out there and make my starts. The only goal I set is win the World Series. Trust me, that’s the best one and the only one you need.

MLB.com: Do you realize what you have accomplished?

Scherzer: I understand that. I don’t like to think about it in those terms. There will be a time I will take the blinders off and we can talk about that. But, to me, it’s more fun to keep the blinders up, ignore some of that stuff, have fun with it, if you need to. It’s about what I’m doing in my next start. What means more, what I do in five days or what I did last year? To me, it’s what happens in five days. That’s what keeps me motivated. That’s what keeps me wanting to compete. What’s going to happen next.

MLB.com: I’m going to mention some names. Tell me what comes to mind: Let’s start with Miguel Cabrera.

Scherzer: Ah, best right-handed hitter ever. His ability to do everything at the plate—to be able to hit for power to all fields, to be able to understand what a pitcher is going to do to you. He is able to drive in runs, get hits and more important is to be able to play through injuries. I don’t think people give Miggy enough credit for what he did for Detroit and for our clubhouse there.

He played through devastating injuries to stay on the field to try to help us win. People kind of overlook what it takes to man up and take the field. He did that. His drive to be great, not only when he had his Triple Crown season, he came back the next year and he was better. I never seen that before. That was really powerful to be a part of -- to watch the best hitter on earth get better. That goes to show you, there are no limits. It’s only in your head.

MLB.com: Ryan Zimmerman.

Scherzer: Mr. National. He was a teammate I played the most years with. Great teammate, great guy, a champion. I really enjoyed him.

MLB.com: Dusty Baker. He is close to winning his 2,000th victory as a manager.

Scherzer: Dusty was great. I loved his mind, his instincts. He has a great knowledge of the game, great history of the game. He played with so many different players. I really, really enjoyed picking his mind.

MLB.com: Mike Rizzo.

Scherzer: A great architect of designing a team from top to bottom and putting together a winner.

MLB.com: Bryce Harper.

Scherzer: Great power hitter. He understands what he does well. He can really do damage at the plate.  (Bill Ladson - April 25, 2022)

When Max Scherzer signed with the Mets last winter, former Tigers catcher Gerald Laird had one thought about his former teammate: He’s going to change the whole Mets organization, just with his presence.

The Mets are indeed better with Scherzer. Major League Baseball is, too. 

Stories about Max:

John Hester, Diamondbacks catcher: I think this might have been his first or second start in High A, but we played the San Jose Giants, and he went out and pitched seven innings, had a perfect game. And they pulled him because that was what you did for your huge prospect that had just shown up and had a pitch count. And he went berserk when our manager went out there to get him. They interviewed him after the game: “Hey Max, do you think you would have finished the perfect game?” And I think the answer was: “Abso-f***ing-lutely.”

Bryan Holaday, Tigers catcher: When Phil Nevin called me to let me know that I was getting called up, I was like, “Man, as long as I’m catching anybody but Max. That guy is just a psycho.”

Shawn Kelley, Nationals reliever: Our third year in Washington together, Derek Lilliquist was our pitching coach. Davey Martinez was the manager. Davey told Lilli, “Go out there and check on him.” Lilli looked at him and was like, “Are you f***ing crazy? I’m not going out there.” They had this conversation about who’s going to go out there and ask him how he’s doing. It was like the seventh inning, and he got in a little bit of a jam.

Gerald Laird, Tigers catcher: You can put this: Max was the sh**tiest golfer and then the best presser in golf. That means he would lose all his money the first 16 holes and then press all his f***ing money the last two holes and he’d look like Tiger Woods. The best.

Luke Carlin, Diamondbacks catcher: Doug Davis, a left-handed pitcher for us, had invited some guys that were living in Arizona to his golf outing for the foundation that he had. I’m not in Max’s group, but I walk up to the tee box where he is and he just straight big-leagues the sh*t out of me. Like, just mean mugs me. We’re all sitting here having drinks; he’s not drinking. He’s locked in like it’s Game 7 of the freaking World Series. I’m like, “What the hell is going on with Max?” His group told me: “Dude, he’s two strokes down. He’s pissed. Don’t talk to him.” I’m like, “It’s a celebrity golf tournament!”

Brayan Peña, Tigers catcher: He came to me and was like, “When I win the Cy Young, I’m going to give you a Rolex.” I was like, “Come on, man. Stop messing around with me.” And, man, he ended up winning the Cy Young and I became a free agent. In December, I got a FedEx to my door in Orlando. There was this beautiful box. I thought it was a joke from my wife or something. When I opened it: an engraved Rolex. (Dodd/Jenks-TheAthletic.com-June 27, 2022)

Sept. 2022: Scherzer chose to play for team USA in the 2023 WBC.

Jan. 30, 2023: Birthday celebrations just got a lot easier in the Scherzer household.

Mets pitcher Max Scherzer and his wife, Erica May-Scherzer, welcomed Nikki — the family’s fourth child — on Jan. 30, which also doubles as Erica’s birthday.

TRANSACTIONS 

April 18, 2007: Scherzer signed with the Independent League Fort Worth Cats.

June 2006: The Diamondbacks chose Max in the first round. But he didn't sign until just minutes before the 2007 deadline.

May 30, 2007: At a minute before midnight, Scherzer signed with the D'Backs, a Major League contract worth $4.3 million in guaranteed money. Joe Robinson is the scout who signed him.

December 9, 2009: Scherzer went to the Tigers in a blockbuster three-team trade that sent Detroit center fielder Curtis Granderson to New York, Tigers righthander Edwin Jackson and Yankees righthander Ian Kennedy to Arizona, and D-backs pitchers Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth to the Tigers. Yankees prospect Austin Jackson and lefty Phil Coke also went to the Tigers.

February 4, 2013: Max and the Tigers agreed on a one-year, $6.7 million contract, avoiding salary arbitration.

January 17, 2014: Scherzer and the Tigers again avoided arbitration by agreeing on a one-year $15.5 million contract for 2014.

January 19, 2015: Max and the Nationals agreed to a seven-year, $210 million contract with much of it deferred.

The contract calls for Scherzer's salary to be $10 million in 2015 and $15 million in each of the next three seasons. It then jumps to $35 million a year in 2019, 2020 and 2021, the seasons in which his deferrals kick in. Scherzer's record $50 million signing bonus will be spread out over the life of the contract. 

July 30, 2021: The Nationals traded RHP Max Scherzer and SS Trea Turner to the Dodgers; acquiring RF Donovan Casey, RHP Gerardo Carrillo, RHP Josiah Gray and C Keibert Ruiz.

Scherzer has a 94-98 mph four-seam FASTBALL, a very good 85-88 mph SLIDER with some tilt; and good feel for his deceptive 84-87 mph wide-grip CHANGEUP that has sinking and fading action. And when Tigers pitching coach Jeff Jones insisted he throw a 76-79 mph CURVEBALL starting in 2012, he finally had a weapon to retire lefty hitters and he became Super-Scherzer. He also shows an 87-91 mph CUTTER on a rare occasion. (May, 2016)

"That's what allowed me to move onto the next level," Scherzer said. "Before that, I always struggled against lefthanded hitters.

"Pitching coach Stan Hilton in Fort Worth (Cats-Independent League) really helped me with my slider," Scherzer said back in 2014. "He turned it from an average pitch, and kind of helped speed up and sharpen up my slider. It's now in the mid- to upper 80s—that's a plus thing I did since I was at Fort Worth."

In 2017, Max's SLIDER was rated the best in the NL by Baseball America's annual Best Tools survey.

2016 Season Pitch Usage: 4-seam Fastball: 55.4% of the time; Change 12.7% of the time; Slider 19.8%; Curve 8.3% and Cutter 3.8% of the time.

2017 Season Pitch Usage: 4-seam Fastball: 48.7% of the time; Change 14% of the time; Slider 24.7%; Curve 8.2%; and Cutter 4.4% of the time.

2018 Season Pitch Usage: 4-seam Fastball: 50.1% of the time; Change 15.8%; Slider 16%; his Curve 8%; and Cutter 10.1% of the time. Average velocity: 4-seam 94.9 mph, Change 84.4, Slider 85.7, Curve 78.9 mph, and Cutter 89 mph.

2019 Season Pitch Usage: 4-seam Fastball: 48.6% of the time; Change 14.4%; Slider 20.6%; his Curve 9%; and Cutter 7.5% of the time. Average velocity: 4-seam 95.3 mph, Change 84.7, Slider 85.9, Curve 79, and Cutter 90.1 mph.

2020 Season Pitch Usage: 4-seam Fastball: 46.5% of the time; Change 16.1%; Slider 18.7%; his Curve 9.2%; and Cutter 9.5% of the time. Average velocity: 4-seam 95 mph, Change 85.3, Slider 85.8, Curve 77.4, and Cutter 91.5 mph.

Max is an intelligent righthander with an intense manner on the mound.

Scherzer has toned down his delivery some, but still has a lot of effort used in his motion, including a violent head jerk. He does achieve good extension out front and his arm strength is obvious. And Max has learned to consistently repeat his delivery.

His delivery has always looked like a horrific arm injury waiting to happen. It begins with his glove in front of his face, just below his eyes; his stare is especially startling because he has two different-colored eyes—the right one is light blue, the left a deep brown—because of a genetic disorder.

He raises his arms high above his head and, as he lowers them, hides the ball with a delayed trunk rotation. All his stored energy is then released with a violent flourish in which the right arm swings across his body from a three-quarter slot.

His head jerks back as the ball is released, like a doll whose neck is about to snap off. The motion is such a storm of rotational velocity that at the end of his follow-through, Max's shoulders are facing first base and his right foot is higher than his head. (Albert Chen-Sports Illustrated-4/28/14)

Scherzer has a philosophy about giving up the occasional home run that is like the one of Curt Schilling. "That's the cost of doing business," Max said. "If I'm giving up first-pitch home runs, that means I'm throwing strikes. I'll play the percentages."

In addition to studying hitters, Max relies on gaining a mental edge to perform on the mound. "I am a high adrenaline pitcher, and I like being amped up and have always been able to achieve that when I'm on the mound," Scherzer said. "I am very loose on the day I pitch, and calm, and I like having fun every day. But there comes a point when I put on my headphones and lock in, and then it's game time.

August 18, 2013: Scherzer became the fifth Major League pitcher since 1912 to win at least 18 of his first 19 decisions, according to STATS, Inc. He joined Roger Clemens as the only Major League pitchers to go 18-1 with all of their wins as starters.

If you'd seen Max Scherzer pitch back in his first days in the big leagues, you might not recognize him now. He was really good then. He's flirting with greatness now.

"There's never an end to it," Tigers pitching coach Jeff Jones said. "He's always trying to improve. Every bullpen [session] is intense. He's really a guy that's driven. He wants to be the best."

Some guys simply burn a different fuel. Let's be clear about who Max Scherzer was in 2008 when the Diamondbacks summoned him to the big leagues. In short, he was good and on his way to getting better. He had a 94-mph fastball and an 85-mph changeup. Those two pitches got him to the big leagues.

"He was basically just a power arm at that point," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said.

Scherzer threw a slider, too, but he had trouble locating it consistently.

"And got punished for it," the pitcher said.

Once he improved his slider and came to trust it more, and as he got more comfortable with his surroundings, he surely was going to get better. What has happened in five years since is a tribute to Scherzer's relentless drive and to his curiosity and commitment to being as good as he can be.

How he evolved from being a very solid big league pitcher to going 21-3 and winning the 2013 American League Cy Young Award is a reminder of the thin difference between good and great.

Scherzer polished one pitch, the slider, and added another, a curveball. He kept tweaking his catalogue as he evaluated himself and looked for weaknesses. He was unafraid to try something new.

In 2013, his fastball frequency had declined from 71 percent in 2009 to 56 percent. He still has a good one, averaging 93.3 mph. It's still the cornerstone of everything he does.

First, the pitch resembled something that was a little bit slider and a little bit curveball. He took some more velocity off it and saw the baseball do things he hadn't anticipated.

"Jonesy," he said after one bullpen session, "I've got a curveball."

Now he had three pitches—fastball, changeup, and curveball.

Right there in that bullpen session in 2012, Scherzer became the guy with the Cy Young Award. For that curveball, he can thank the Indians.

"Cleveland had hit me," he said. "Cleveland always had like nine lefties and always did a good job against me. I realized I needed a third pitch to face Cleveland. I broke it out against them and had success immediately. It was slow, 80 mph.

In 2012, lefthanded hitters batted .290 against Scherzer. In 2013, they hit .218.

"That's the main reason I was able to have a lot of success in 2013," he said. "There were three different speeds they had to respect," Scherzer said. "It changes everything. It makes every pitch better."  (Richard Justice - 3/14/14)

In the spring of 2015, Scherzer was adding a cutter to his existing four-pitch repertoire, The New York Times reported. And former Major League pitchers Al Leiter and Ron Darling discussed the news during a Diamond Demo segment on MLB Network.

"The cool thing is, you've got a guy who won a Cy Young, just signed for a boatload of cash," Leiter said, "and he's saying, 'How do I get better? How do I improve? How do I make some changes?'"

Scherzer already throws a four-seam fastball, a changeup, a slider and a curveball, which he implemented before winning the AL Cy Young for the Tigers in 2013. However, Leiter pointed out on video at least one instance of his throwing what looked like a cutter during the 2014 season. 

Making the pitch a significant part of his game could give Scherzer even more of an advantage over hitters. While they managed only a .238/.294/.368 line against him last season, they did bat .314/.486/.559 when ahead in the count. 

"The great thing about a cutter is that when you get in bad counts—2-1, 3-1—you can go to that pitch because you get just enough movement to run up the bat," Darling said. The only potential problem, according to Leiter, is that pitchers who develop cutters sometimes can become "cutter-happy," and lose the right feel for their regular fastball.

But a good cutter also can be a tremendous weapon, with Leiter pointing to the example of longtime Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who became a 13-time All-Star thanks in large part to that pitch. Leiter himself used one during his 19-year career in the big leagues, and he and Darling demonstrated different ways to grip and deliver the pitch. 

"The difference is, in the cutter and the slider, is that the cutter looks just like a fastball," Leiter said. "Mariano Rivera made a career out of it, where they see fastball, fastball, fastball, and it cuts." (Simon - mlb.com - 2/26/15)

Spring 2015: After he was traded to Detroit, Scherzer became the pitcher everyone expected him to be. He won 82 games over five seasons with the Tigers and captured the AL Cy Young in 2013.

But if you talk to Scherzer, there's still a lot of work to be done on the mound, and he says that he's still learning on the job.

Take the time when Scherzer and right-hander Anibal Sanchez were teammates with the Tigers.

Scherzer said Sanchez was the best he saw at changing speeds with his changeup. Sanchez could throw his changeup between 84-88 mph, go down to 75 and then back to 88.

"I don't know how he does it, and you see hitters take stupid hacks at it," Scherzer said. "Something like that, you try to talk to him and figure out how you can add it to your game a little bit. There are constant conversations like that all the time."

"On paper, we look great. We are as good as anybody in the league. I've seen these guys from afar and know who they are," Scherzer said. "But I need to see these guys every single day. I need to see all 30 starts and watch when they go on hot streaks, when they struggle. We all have great times and a little low times. It's a matter of how we handle each situation. I haven't had the experience with these guys. It would be unfair to my former rotation mates to sit here and try to compare." (B Ladson - MLB.com - April 2, 2015)

June 20, 2015: Scherzer threw the second no-hitter in Nationals history, and he was perfect for 8 2/3 innings. In fact, he was one strike away from a perfecto. But nailed down the no-no. 

June 26, 2015: Scherzer dominated in gaining his 100th MLB victory. He lost his bid though for a second straight no-hitter, going 5.1 perfect innings before Freddy Galvis broke up the no-hit bid with a double. Only Johnny Vander Meer, 77 years before, for the Reds, has ever thrown two consecutive no-no's.

August 14, 2015: Scherzer said his arm slot is not right and he needs to work on his arm action for hours to get it right. When the arm slot isn't right, the fastball flattens out and goes to the middle of the plate. He had this problem with the Tigers in 2010 and figured it out within five days. Scherzer hopes to get it right for his next start. "I get it. I stunk. There is no getting around that," Scherzer said. "My arm slot is a little low right now. It causes my fastball to flatten out. When you think about the results, a lot of damage was done against the fastball.

"It's going to take some work. You have to create a good habit with it. I have to throw the ball 10,000 times to a wall just to make sure I have this good habit. This isn't a huge fix, but it's a time-consuming fix." (B Ladson - MLB.com - August 15, 2015)

October 3, 2015: Scherzer became just the sixth pitcher to throw two no-hitters in a year, and the first since Roy Halladay in 2010. The former Phillies ace had one in the regular season and another in the playoffs. His 17 strikeouts tied the most by a no-hit pitcher since 1900. The other was Nolan Ryan in 1973.

May 11, 2016: Scherzer dominated the Tigers with 20 strikeouts, tying a Major League record for a nine-inning start in a complete-game victory. He became just the fourth pitcher in MLB history with 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning effort. (Jamal Collier and Jason Beck - MLB.com)

August 9, 2016:  Since he joined the Nationals in 2015, no other pitcher in baseball has taken a no-hitter through at least five innings with greater regularity than Max Scherzer.  

He flirted with history once again by taking a no-no into the seventh inning against the Indians. However, Scherzer's effort was not enough to overcome a quiet night on offense for the Nationals.

Max did become the first pitcher in the Majors to strike out 200 hitters in 2016 when he caught Indians catcher Roberto Perez looking with a slider. Scherzer eclipsed the 200-strikeout mark for the fifth consecutive season, joining Clayton Kershaw, Felix Hernandez, and Justin Verlander as the only active pitchers to do so. Zack Greinke is the only other active pitcher to have at least five seasons of 200 or more strikeouts.  (Collier - MLB.com)

Max has flirted with history more often than any other pitcher in baseball since he joined the Nationals before the start of the 2015 season. Nine times in his 61 starts for Washington, Scherzer has carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning. On August 30, 2016, he did not allow a hit until the sixth, when Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis lined a double off the right-field wall.

Scherzer has done this so often during his time with the Nationals that it does not take long during the early stages of a game for his teammates to wonder if they are about to see something historic.

"I think when he goes out there, we're pretty pumped," Bryce Harper said. "Being able to see him do what he does every five days, he has an opportunity to go out there and throw a perfect game or a no-no."

"It's hard not to think of something special going on in any of these games when he's pitching like this," catcher Wilson Ramos said through an interpreter.

"It's different if a guy hadn't done it," Nationals manager Dusty Baker said. "But about the fourth or fifth, the way he was dealing, and his pitch count was low, right away I'm sure everybody on the team was thinking it, because they've seen it before."

Even Scherzer knows it, although he has said he does not allow himself to think about a no-hitter until he gets through at least six innings.  "I knew I was throwing the ball well," Scherzer said. "I knew I had all the pitches working. I knew I could go out there and keep different looks going multiple times through the lineup, and really sequence guys right."  (Collier - MLB.com - 8/30/16)

September 27, 2016:  When the Nationals signed Max to a seven-year, $210 million contract, it would have been hard to envision more production from him the first two seasons.  During a 4-2 win over the D-backs, Scherzer added to his Major League-leading total with his 277th strikeout of the year, breaking the record he had set the previous year for most strikeouts in a single season in Nationals history (2005-present).

The record-breaking strikeout was the last of his 10 over six innings—Scherzer's 13th double-digit strikeout game of the season, also the most in the Majors. Scherzer leads the Majors in strikeouts and WHIP while leading National League pitchers in WAR, and picked up his 19th victory for voters still inclined to look at traditional stats.  (Collier - MLB.com)

As a 23-year-old in 2008, his debut season in Arizona, Scherzer was teammates with 44-year-old Randy Johnson, who was in the second-to-last year of his Hall of Fame career. Interestingly, Johnson and Scherzer are the only two pitchers in Major League history to strike out 20 batters in a game and throw a no-hitter. And both pitchers threw two no-nos.

2016 season: Scherzer led the Majors with a 0.97 WHIP and 284 strikeouts.

In 2016, Scherzer won the NL Cy Young Award with the Nationals.

In 2016, Scherzer also won the Esurance MLB Award for Best Performance and for Best Pitcher, voted on by fans.

May 14, 2017: An inning after he was drilled on the left knee by a comebacker, Max followed it up with an immaculate inning, striking out the side on nine pitches in the Nationals' 6-5 victory over the Phillies.

Scherzer actually began the game dealing with a minor blister on a finger, before he was struck by a 100-mph line drive off the bat of Michael Saunders in the fourth inning. Scherzer joked that the blister hurt much less after that.  (Collier - mlb.com)

June 11, 2017: In terms of innings pitched (1,784), Scherzer is the third-fastest to hit 2,000 strikeouts behind Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson.  

"It's crazy to hear me mentioned even among those guys," Scherzer said. "Those are my pitching idols. I'm growing up watching those guys. So any type of mention of anything among those guys—I don't know, it doesn't even seem real."  (Collier - mlb.com)

It is a feat that had only been accomplished by 10 pitchers in the game's history and a streak requiring a unique combination of skill, good health, and preparation.  

Throughout his career, Max has dedicated the necessary time and effort to preparing his body for heavy workloads. He's now been rewarded with six straight seasons of at least 200 strikeouts, adding yet another accomplishment to his already lengthy list.

With his strikeout of Wily Peralta in the Nats' 15-2 win vs. the Brewers on July 27, 2017, Scherzer became the 11th pitcher since at least 1901 to reach the plateau. He is also the 23rd pitcher since at least 1901 to compile at least 200 K's in six or more seasons in a career.  

"That's a good size plateau to reach, and I'm very appreciative to have the health to be able to do this for six [seasons], to be able year in and year out to be healthy and have the stuff to be able to do that," Scherzer said.  

A 10-year veteran, Scherzer has spent a total of 16 days on the disabled list since entering the league in 2008. There perhaps has been no pitcher more durable and more consistent in the game since the streak began.

"The hard work I put in, and all the coaches as well, catchers back there, all the coaches and video guys putting everything together," Scherzer said. "That's why I've been able to achieve that."  (Macklin - mlb.com - 7/27/17)

September 19, 2017: Max continued to rack up the strikeouts in 2017.  With a third-inning strikeout of Braves pitcher Luiz Gohara, Scherzer reached 250 strikeouts for the fourth straight season. The Nationals won the game, 4-2.  

Scherzer is the fourth pitcher in MLB history to post such a streak, joining Fergie Jenkins, Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson on the list. Johnson has the longest streak, from 1997-2002.  

A big key to Scherzer's success has been his strong combination of his two-seam fastball and slider. He uses the slider to run inside to left-handed hitters, allowing him to balance his pitching arsenal.  (Thompson - mlb.com)

In 2017, for the second consecutive season, the Nationals Max Scherzer won the NL Cy Young Award. He became the first pitcher to win consecutive NL Cy Young Awards since Clayton Kershaw did so in 2013-2014.

This was Scherzer's third Cy Young Award overall, which puts him in elite company as he continues to rack up career accolades.

In 2017, Max held opponents to a slash line of .137/.207/.257 the first time he faced hitters in a game; .228/.275/.386 during hitters' second trip to the plate; .158/.242/.301 the third time around; and .278/.458/.444 the fourth time through the batting order.

May 6, 2018:  Max struck out a season-high 15 batters through 6 1/3 innings, becoming the first MLB pitcher in history to reach 15 K's in 19 outs or fewer. 

At one point, Scherzer had fanned seven consecutive Philadelphia batters. That's the second-longest such stretch of the season in the bigs, and just three shy of the MLB record set by Hall of Famer Tom Seaver in 1970.

Scherzer also recorded 12 consecutive outs via strikeout (with runners sprinkled in between) before Maikel Franco grounded his 104th pitch into a double play to end the sixth. That's the second-longest such streak in the Majors since the beginning of the expansion era (1961), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.  (Quillen - mlb.com)

2018 Improvements: Somehow, some way, Scherzer has found another level, even with his 34th birthday coming in July. Somehow, some way, Scherzer has become a better version of the guy who has celebrated the end of three of the last five seasons by placing the most prestigious individual award a pitcher can win on his mantle. Somehow, some way, Scherzer found what only he could deem a flaw in his repertoire and rectified it.

Scherzer, he of the three Cy Youngs and the nearly 34 years on this planet, has dramatically altered his pitch mix this season. He has sacrificed a large number of sliders, increasing the usage of his cutter by nearly 100%.

Most pitchers would be terrified to make such a change. The Nationals ace took it on in typical Scherzer-ian fashion, full steam ahead with no doubts. The change is working, and Scherzer is on pace for the best season of his career. (Michael Beller - Sports Illustrated - May 16, 2018)

May 31, 2018:  Max struck out 12 batters, dominating the Orioles over eight scoreless innings to pick up his 150th career win and his Major League-leading ninth victory of the season as the Nationals won their sixth game in a row, 2-0.

2018: Scherzer is the first pitcher to win back-to-back Pitcher of the Month awards to start a season since Houston's Dallas Keuchel in 2015.

June 5, 2018: Scherzer fanned Johnny Field, pinch-hitter Christian Arroyo and Daniel Robertson on nine pitches for three swinging strikeouts to pull off an immaculate inning for the second time in the Majors this season. It took him a moment to realize what he had done, before he began counting the pitches in his head while walking off the field.

"Awesome. It's just one of those things, it just happened," Scherzer said. "Just executing pitches. It's one of those things where, hey, it happened. That's more to the preparation than anything, and knowing what [catcher Pedro Severino] wanted behind the plate." Scherzer did it by pounding the strike zone relentlessly. He started 25 of the 28 batters he faced with a first-pitch strike. Of the 99 pitches he threw, 81 were strikes. It's the most strikes on record in a game of fewer than 100 pitches (surpassing 80-strike starts by Bartolo Colon and Don Newcombe). (Collier - mlb.com)

July 2, 2018:  Max became the 11th pitcher in MLB history to record at least 1,000 strikeouts with two clubs.

The 2018 Baseball America Best Tools Survey (of managers, scouts and executives) rated Max as Best Pitcher, as having the Best Slider, the third-best Fastball (behind Jordan Hicks and Noah Syndergaard), and third-best Changeup.

September 3, 2018: Scherzer joined Hall of Famer Randy Johnson as the only two hurlers in history with five straight seasons of 250 or more Ks. Johnson achieved the feat in six straight years (1997-2002).

September 20, 2018: Scherzer racked up 13 strikeouts to reach 290 on the season, breaking his own Nationals record for most strikeouts in a single season.

September 25, 2018:  Max recorded his 300th strikeout of the season. Scherzer became just the sixth pitcher since 1990 to record 300 strikeouts in a single season, joining Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale.

Scherzer ended the night with 300 strikeouts and 150 hits allowed this year, which would be the fewest hits ever allowed by a pitcher in a 300-strikeout season, besting Pedro Martinez's 1997 campaign when he gave up 158 hits, according to STATS. 

2018 Season:  Scherzer's bid for a third consecutive NL Cy Young Award fell short in 2018, with a runner-up finish behind Mets ace Jacob deGrom and his record-setting ERA. 

He led all NL pitchers in strikeouts (300), strikeouts per nine innings (12.24), strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.88), WHIP (0.91) and innings (220.2). The right-hander also became just the fifth pitcher since 2001 to strike out 300 in a season, a number reserved for the most elite starters even as strikeout totals spike around the game.

"This was the best season of my career," Scherzer said. "I accomplished my goal of getting better. Really, I think the biggest thing I'm happy about is the consistency from start to start, keeping the team in the ballgame no matter the situation, and pitching deep in games to help save the bullpen. Those are things you take pride in, when you pitch deep in ballgames and throw 220 innings. That's helping a team out in a lot of different ways." (J Collier - MLB.com - Nov 14, 2018)

2018: Scherzer's slider was voted one of the nastiest pitches in baseball by MLB players.

 Scherzer is constantly updating himself, including the increased emphasis on a relatively new cutter in a typically terrific 2018. He also threw his changeup a little bit more this past season than he did in his first few seasons in Washington, and that pitch garnered two votes in our poll.

But Scherzer's slider, which was the pitch of increased emphasis in his 2017 Cy season, got the most votes here.

"There is no way you can see the spin of the ball," Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus said. "My whole 10 years, that's the toughest one."

It wasn't quite as commanding a pitch in '18 as it was in '17, when batters posted just a .129 average and .177 slugging percentage off it in the midst of career-high deployment, but it was still very effective (.195 AVG, .353 SLG).

"I think you could go with a couple of his pitches, but that slider is one of the best ones in the league, if not the best," Marlins third baseman Brian Anderson said. "You don't really see the spin out of the hand, and it's got a lot of late bite to it."  (Anthony Castrovince - MLB.com- Jan. 7, 2019)

March 28, 2019: The Opening Day duel between Scherzer and Jacob deGrom more than lived up to the hype. Both aces reached double-digit strikeouts at Nationals Park in the Mets' season-opening 2-0 win over the Nationals. Scherzer, making his fourth Opening Day start in five seasons with Washington, struck out 12; deGrom, in his first career Opening Day start, struck out 10. It's just the second Opening Day game in which both starting pitchers had at least 10 strikeouts.

"Those are games that are fun," deGrom said. "You know every pitch matters."

The other was nearly 50 years ago, on April 7, 1970. The Orioles' Dave McNally and the Indians' Sam McDowell both reached the mark, with McNally striking out 13 in a complete-game win over the Tribe and McDowell, who struck out 11 in his 6.1 innings.

April 26, 2019: Scherzer notched yet another milestone as he builds an increasingly Hall-of-Fame worthy resume. He recorded the 2,500th strikeout of his career in the sixth inning of the Nats' 4-3 loss at Nationals Park, punching out Padres center fielder Manuel Margot on three pitches, including a slider on the outside corner that froze Margot in the batter’s box.

Scherzer became just the 35th pitcher in MLB history to accomplish the feat and third active pitcher behind CC Sabathia (2,997) and Justin Verlander (2,752). And Scherzer became the third fastest by games and innings to accomplish the feat in big league history, trailing only Randy Johnson (313) and Nolan Ryan (338), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

‘It's really cool,” Scherzer said. “It's stuff that you'll think about in the offseason a little bit more than you do now. Right now, you're just caught up in living it day by day, going through the season. But it's a cool milestone to reach.”

June 14, 2019: Max Scherzer is building his own strong case to be enshrined in Cooperstown at the end of his career, primarily on the back of outings like the 7-3 victory over the D-backs, when he passed a pair of Hall of Famers on the all-time strikeout list.

Scherzer fanned 10 in seven innings of two-run ball, jumping ahead of Warren Spahn and Bob Feller, into 27th place all-time in MLB history with 2,585 career strikeouts. Spahn pitched for 21 years and threw more than 5,200 innings. Feller pitched for 18 years and threw more than 3,800 innings. Scherzer, meanwhile, is in just his 12th season with about 2,200 innings to his name, is already moving ahead of some of the all-time greats.

“Sweet,” Scherzer said. “Let's keep going.”

June 2, 2019: Scherzer’s sixth career game of 15 or more strikeouts. The only other pitchers with at least as many such games are Randy Johnson (29), Nolan Ryan (26), Pedro Martínez (10), Roger Clemens (10), and Sandy Koufax (eight).

June 15, 2019: Scherzer fanned 10 in seven innings of two-run ball, jumping ahead of Warren Spahn and Bob Feller, into 27th place all-time in MLB history with 2,585 career strikeouts. Spahn pitched for 21 years and threw more than 5,200 innings. Feller pitched for 18 years and threw more than 3,800 innings.

Scherzer, meanwhile, is in just his 12th season with about 2,200 innings to his name, is already moving ahead of some of the all-time greats. (Jamal Collier-MLB.com)

June 19, 2019: Max's four-seamer averaged 96.2 mph on the evening, tied for the third-highest in any of the 358 starts (including postseason) in his career. He had not thrown that hard over the course of a single outing since Sept. 28, 2015, and had not thrown harder since Sept. 7, 2012. His fastball generated 18 swinging strikes and touched at least 98 mph twice, something he had done on only one previous pitch this 2019 season and didn’t do all of last year.

That uptick in velocity? Scherzer chalked it up to the weather. It was humid and hovering around 80 degrees in D.C., Scherzer’s ideal weather to pitch in.

July 1, 2019: Major League Baseball announced the latest National League Player of the Week, with Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer (NL) receiving the honor.

Scherzer struck out 10-plus batters in both of his starts last week, tallying 24 Ks in total and walking none over 16 innings. That included a 14-strikeout gem against the Tigers, one of his former teams, when he was named to the All-Star team for the seventh straight season. The 34-year-old finished the week with a 1.13 ERA and a 0.56 WHIP.

In addition:  Max is only the fourth pitcher in the live ball era (since 1920) with an ERA of 1.00 or lower and 68-plus strikeouts in a month.  The other pitchers to accomplish that feat include:

• Pedro Martinez in September/October 1999 (0.86 ERA, 71 strikeouts in 42 innings).• Roger Clemens in August 1998 (0.90 ERA, 68 strikeouts in 50 innings)• Randy Johnson in June 1997 (0.92 ERA, 68 strikeouts in 49 innings)• Scherzer (1.00 ERA, 68 strikeouts in 45 innings).

“Just in rhythm,” Scherzer said. “Rhythm with my mechanics and have the shape of every offspeed pitch—all five of 'em, really. To be able to execute them where I want to. Not trying to make mistakes with 'em, execute where I want to and then, when I can sequence, it gives [catcher Kurt Suzuki] the ability to call anything.”  (Collier -mlb.com)

Aug 28, 2019: Scherzer recorded his 200th strikeout on the 2019 year. It marked the eighth consecutive season, dating back to 2012, that Scherzer has struck out at least 200 batters, which is the second-longest streak in MLB history. Tom Seaver posted 200 strikeouts in nine consecutive seasons from 1968-1976.

“I feel fortunate to have Max Scherzer,” Martinez said, “but also Strasburg and Corbin. All hands will be on deck.” (Editor's note: The Nats beat the Brewers 4-3, and Strasburg got the win in relief. Later in the month, the Nats advanced to the World Series.)

Nov. 13, 2019: Scherzer finishes 3rd in NL Cy Young voting.

It’s becoming almost an annual tradition for Max Scherzer, appearing on MLB Network each November a few weeks after the end of the season and waiting to hear the results of the National League Cy Young Award. 

Each year since signing with Washington in 2015, Scherzer has earned NL Cy Young votes, finishing fifth in 2015 and then as a finalist every season after, winning the award in ‘16 and ‘17 and finishing behind winner Jacob deGrom of the Mets in the two most recent seasons.

We were talking about Game 7 of the 2019 World Series, Nationals against the Astros. On a night when the opposing starter, Zack Grienke, was pitching the game of his life, Scherzer was just glad to be pitching at all, having been scratched from his Game 5 start, at home, because of neck spasms that he recalled had “just locked me up.”

We hear all the time in baseball about how tough an out this guy or that guy is. On that October night, the toughest out was the guy on the mound, trying to get the game to the Nationals’ bullpen, and get all of Washington, D.C., to the World Series trophy. There are a lot of ace pitchers in the game you’d want getting the ball in a Game 7. Scherzer is the one I’d want.

“I’d pitched in a lot of deciding games in my career,” Scherzer said. He started counting them off on his fingers until he got to six.

“But you had to think about this one differently,” I said. “This was Game 7 of the Series. Most guys can go their whole careers without knowing if they’d be good enough in Game 7 of the Series.”

Scherzer smiled. “I just believed that we were going to win,” he said. “I wasn’t nervous. I wasn’t too pumped for the moment. I believed we were going to win and that I could do the job that night. And what the job really was that night was for me to lay it all on the line.”

Scherzer laid it all on the line, and it was something to see, and to remember.

“Not gonna lie, it was a grind,” he said. “But I’d spent September getting myself ready to throw 100 pitches. And then I had 100 in me that night.”

Did Scherzer have his best stuff against the Astros that night in Minute Maid Park? He did not. There were always guys on the bases. But he threw 103 pitches, struck out three and walked four, and even though he left with the score 2-0 for Houston, he simply refused to let the Astros bust the game wide open.

And then the Nationals came from behind again, the way they had been coming from behind since their National League Wild Card Game against the Brewers, scoring six runs over the final three innings to win the World Series. When it was all over, Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg had been as formidable a partnership in a baseball October as Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling had been for the D-backs in 2001.

Scherzer and Strasburg started 10 games between them. Each of them pitched once in relief. Strasburg was 5-0 in October. Scherzer was 3-0, with a 2.40 ERA, 30 innings pitched and 37 strikeouts. At age 35. In the fifth year of the seven-year contract he signed with the Nationals after he left the Detroit Tigers. In those five years, he has never had an ERA over three runs a game. He has won two NL Cy Young Awards to go with the American League one he won with the Tigers.

Again: He is the kind of free-agent starter -- 30 years old when the Nationals signed him -- that all the other teams are looking for, at any age. The Yankees just signed Gerrit Cole to a nine-year contract worth $324 million. You know who they want Cole to be? They want him to be Max Scherzer, who has done everything the Nationals wanted him to do and been who they hoped he would be and who finally helped pitch them to the first World Series title for a team in Washington, D.C., in nearly 100 years.

And even four months after the parade through downtown Washington, he will not make any excuses about his physical state throughout what became a magical run for his team. He said that the kind of neck issues he had before Game 5 can go away as quickly as they come for an athlete; said that if the Nationals had needed him to come out of the bullpen in Game 6, he could have pitched that night.

“Looking back,” he said, “I honestly felt, until I had the neck issues, that I was firing on all cylinders by the time we got to the Series.”

There is this notion that there is nothing riskier than a long-term contract for a starting pitcher at age 30 or older. Max Scherzer has made a lie out of that. He remains one of the great pitchers of his time as he approaches his 36th birthday this summer, with a lifetime record of 170-89. He was 82-35 in his five years with the Tigers. He is 79-39 in the five years since. The Nationals have gotten everything they paid for and more. This time, with Mad Max, the mad money paid off. (M Lupica- MLB.com - Feb 26, 2020)

July 23, 2020:  Today was Max's third Opening Day game with 10-plus strikeouts. Only Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Félix Hernández and Bob Gibson have reached that mark, and Scherzer became the first to do it three years in a row.

Scherzer reached 99 pitches. Sixty-two were for strikes, including 14 swinging strikes off 34 sliders thrown. His fastball reached 97.2 mph, though he was targeting better location with it.

"Honestly, I thought my offspeed stuff was good and it was sharp," Scherzer said. "I thought I had putaway pitches. Unfortunately, my fastball location, I was kind of getting crossfired. Every time I tried to throw arm side, I was going glove side. Glove side, arm side. So I didn't pitch quite as efficiently and it creates some mistakes where I wasn't locating it as well as I could have. But sometimes that's going to happen, and you just try to make the fix and move on to the next start." ( (J Camerato - MLB.com - July 24, 2020)

July 23, 2020: Scherzer tallied his 94th career game of 10 or more strikeouts, putting him in the same company as Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez and Sandy Koufax.

July 29, 2020: It was as if Max Scherzer time traveled.

On July 21, 2010, Scherzer, then in his third Major League season, recorded his first two strikeouts of Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero in a Tigers win over the Rangers.

Fast forward 10 years and eight days, and Scherzer was facing the same last name in the batter’s box. Only in this game on Wednesday night at Nationals Park, it was Guerrero’s son, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., at the plate for the Blue Jays.

“Man, I'm just getting old,” Scherzer said with a laugh after the Nationals’ 4-0 win. “I just had my birthday, I'm 36 now. I'm an old guy in the league now. It's official.”

The result of the pitching matchup didn’t change. Scherzer picked up a strikeout against Guerrero, with the damage being done on an 87 mph called third strike in the fourth inning after Guerrero had flied out in his first at-bat against Scherzer.

“That's the great part of this game in facing the old generation and now the new generation,” Scherzer said. “You want to be able to get the new generation out. The next generation's a great set of ballplayers here.” (J Camerato - MLB.com - July 29, 2020)

Sept 7, 2020: Scherzer held the Rays -- who came into the two-game Interleague Series having won nine of their last 11 -- without a run on six hits, one walk and eight strikeouts. After throwing 40 pitches in the first two innings, he settled in and tossed 104 on the night (70 for strikes).

“During this past turn, I reflected on how I’ve been pitching and I just didn’t think my curveball and changeup have been executed as well as I could have,” Scherzer said. “I feel like my changeup has been kind of flat, it hasn’t been getting the swings and misses as it usually does. In the bullpen, I really worked on trying to mechanically deliver that one right. I felt like tonight, I was finally able to start throwing some changeups and that really helped me out.

“Then the curveball, I was able to get some more plate with it, and be able to get underneath the zone and be able to get some swing and misses. When I’m able to execute those two pitches, especially when they’ve got seven lefties in their lineup, it allows the fastball, cutter to play up even more.” (J Camerato - MLB.com - Sept 7, 2020)

September 13, 2020:  Max passed Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax when he reached his 98th career game with 10-plus strikeouts. The hurling right-hander hit double digits in just the fifth inning of the Nats’ 8-4 loss.

“Obviously, it feels better in a win. When you lose, it doesn’t feel as great,” Scherzer said. “It’s a really cool feat to be able to say you passed somebody like Sandy Koufax in anything. The fact that I was able to do that, that’s awesome.”

Scherzer is ranked fifth all-time on the list of most career games with 10-plus strikeouts. He trails only Nolan Ryan (215), Randy Johnson (212), Roger Clemens (110) and Pedro Martinez (108).  (Camerato - mlb.com)

September 20, 2020:  Scherzer, in his 13th season, surpassed 21-year veteran Frank Tanana for 23rd on the all-time career strikeouts list (with 2,779). Hall of Famer Cy Young ranks 22nd with 2,803 strikeouts.

Sept 27, 2020: Scherzer wrapped up his 13th Major League season with a six-inning, 109-pitch performance. He struck out seven, walked two and allowed three runs off six hits (including two homers). With momentum at the end of the season, Scherzer threw a 96.9 mph strikeout against Amed Rosario in the second inning for his fourth-fastest strikeout pitch of the year.

Scherzer finished 2020 at 5-4 with a 3.74 ERA, his 11th straight year with a winning record.

“Those are results, and the results are part of the process,” Scherzer said. “You look at the process of how you’re getting there. At the end of the day [when] you reflect upon the season, the only thing I’m really disappointed in is that my walks were higher than usual. But at the end of the day, I was still able to pitch pretty darn well and find a way to navigate through and work with both catchers here.”

This season, Scherzer led the Nationals with 92 strikeouts, including five starts with double-digit Ks. He also paced the team in innings pitched despite leaving his Aug. 5 start against the Mets after just one frame due to a tweaked right hamstring.

“I’m glad he finished up strong,” manager Dave Martinez said after the Nats won Game 2 to sweep the twin bill. “He feels good about himself going into the winter. Now he gets to rest for a little bit and get after it for 2021."

Scherzer climbed up the all-time rankings along the way. Among his accomplishments: He became the only starting pitcher in Major League history to post a strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate above 10.0 for nine consecutive qualified seasons (no one has done it for eight); he passed Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax to become fifth in 10-plus strikeout games; and he moved ahead of Frank Tanana for 23rd on the all-time strikeouts list. (J Camerato - MLB.com - Sept 27, 2020)

Feb 12, 2021: Whenever Max Scherzer steps on the mound, it's anyone's guess as to how many strikeouts he will tally by the end of the game. What's a standout performance for some pitchers is just another day at the office for the three-time Cy Young Award winner.

–20 strikeouts in a single game

Facing the Tigers, his former team, on May 11, 2016, Scherzer became the fourth pitcher in Major League history to fan 20 batters in a nine-inning game. The only pitchers to do so before him were Randy Johnson, Kerry Wood and Roger Clemens (twice). Scherzer also joined Johnson as just the second pitcher to throw a no-hitter (two) and 20-strikeout game in their careers. With his performance, Scherzer set the Nationals franchise' record in single-game strikeouts in the 3-2 win. "Tonight, at the end of the night, was a special night," Scherzer said. "Because, I mean, the strikeouts are sexy. And to be able to punch out 20 . . . it's sexy."

–98 double-digit strikeout games

Checking the box score, it’s not unusual to see 10 or more strikeouts in Scherzer’s stat line. It’s who he’s passing in the rankings that turns heads even more. On Sept. 13, 2020, in an 8-4 loss to the Braves, Scherzer moved ahead of Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax for fifth place all-time in games with double-digit strikeouts. Scherzer’s 98 games trail Nolan Ryan (215), Johnson (212), Clemens (110) and Pedro Martinez (108).

“It’s a really cool feat to be able to say you passed somebody like Sandy Koufax in anything,” Scherzer said. “The fact that I was able to do that, that’s awesome.”

–300 strikeouts in a season

Closing out his 2018 season on Sept. 25, Scherzer recorded his 300th strikeout of the year when he fanned Austin Dean in the seventh inning of a 9-4 win over the Marlins. He joined Curt Schilling, Johnson, Martinez, Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale as the sixth pitcher since 1900 to reach the 300-strikeout mark in a season, and he was the first right-hander to do so since Schilling in ‘02. Scherzer’s 300 strikeouts stand as the Nationals’ single-season record.

"I wouldn't say it was a goal,” Scherzer said. “It was just something as I solidified myself in the big leagues and showed I was able to get to those marks. It was something I dreamed of, reaching this mark, because I know how hard it is to consistently go out there and strike guys out."

–2,500th career strikeout

With a slider that caught Manuel Margot looking, Scherzer recorded his 2,500th career strikeout on April 16, 2019, in a 4-3 loss to the Padres. Just 34 other Major League pitchers had reached that mark, and Scherzer needed the third-fewest games (344) to do so. Only Johnson (313) and Ryan (338) did it faster. Scherzer described the achievement as “a cool milestone to reach.” He enters the 2021 season with 2,784 strikeouts, second among active players. (J Camerato - MLB.com - Feb 12, 2021)

March 21, 2021: Scherzer will be the Nationals’ Opening Day starter for the sixth time in seven seasons. “He’s ready,” manager Dave Martinez said following the Nats’ 6-2 loss to the Mets. “He’s the guy that gets everything started for us. He competes. We know what we’re going to get from him. He loves Opening Day, so he’s the guy we’re going to follow Opening Day.”

April 16, 2021: Max Scherzer doesn’t rest his laurels on milestones, but when he passed baseball icon Cy Young on the all-time leaderboards, it was more than just another strikeout.

“It’s pretty cool,” Scherzer said following the Nats’ 1-0 walk-off win over the D-backs. “I didn’t even know that was happening.” 

Scherzer entered the matchup against the D-backs with 2,798 career strikeouts. He notched his eighth strikeout to lead off the seventh inning to tie Young at 2,806 punchouts for 22nd in Major League history. He caught the next batter, Eduardo Escobar, swinging for his ninth to move ahead. The 14-year veteran reached the mark against the team for which he played his first two seasons. He tallied his first 240 strikeouts from 2008-09 as a member of the D-backs.

“For me, it’s just a test of durability to be able to go out there and just be durable, year in, year out and be able to execute pitches,” Scherzer said. “That’s what I take away from passing Cy Young.” (J Camerato - MLB.com - April 17, 2021) 

May 8, 2021: Scherzer joined a select group in a game against the Yankees. The Nationals ace recorded his 100th career start with 10-plus strikeouts, becoming just the fifth pitcher during the modern era (since 1901) to reach that milestone.

May 15, 2021: Scherzer passed Gio Gonzalez on the team’s all-time wins list. With his 87th victory in a Nationals uniform, Scherzer moved into fourth place in franchise history for wins by a pitcher. Second, behind Stephen Strasburg.

May 19, 2021: Through all the craziness of what turned out to be a 4-3 win over the Cubs, Max Scherzer made history. The Nationals ace struck out Cubs center fielder Ian Happ to end the third inning.  Scherzer's fourth of eight strikeouts over his five innings on the night moved him past Hall of Famer Jim Bunning and into 19th place on Major League Baseball’s all-time strikeout leaderboard as the 2,856th of his career.

May 25, 2021:  In his 180th start with the Nationals, Max limited the Reds to two runs over seven innings.  In doing so, Scherzer has pitched at least seven frames and allowed two runs or fewer in 44 percent of his starts with Washington.

June 27, 2021:  Max recorded career strikeout No. 2,900 in his seven-K start against the Marlins.  He ranks second among all active pitchers behind Justin Verlander and 19th among pitchers all-time in the category with 2,903 strikeouts.

July 13, 2021: With a 2.66 ERA heading into the break, Nationals ace Max Scherzer was named the starting pitcher for the National League in the 2021 MLB All-Star Game at Coors Field, NL manager Dave Roberts announced.

“It’s an incredible honor,” Scherzer said as he sat on the stage alongside American League starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani and managers Roberts (NL) and Kevin Cash (AL).

It will mark the fourth All-Star start of Scherzer’s career. Only five pitchers have started at least four All-Star Games on the mound, and all five are in the Hall of Fame: Don Drysdale, Lefty Gomez and Robin Roberts are tied for the most with five, while Jim Palmer and Randy Johnson made four starts each. Scherzer has started twice previously for the NL (2017, ‘18), and once for the American League (‘13). He's appeared in five games overall, yielding one run over six innings, while striking out 10 and walking one.

“When you step into a room full of All-Stars and you get the ball, that’s a special feeling,” Scherzer said. “It’s really hard putting it into words. So for Dave to select me again and to give that honor to me with the quality of arms that are in the National League this year, I’m very blessed and very thankful for that opportunity.” (J Camerato - MLB.com - July 13, 2021)

July 14, 2021:  Scherzer became the sixth pitcher in history to start at least four Midsummer Classics. 

Sept. 12, 2021: Scherzer got Eric Hosmer to chase a down-and-in, full-count changeup for the second out of the fifth inning to become only the 19th pitcher in major league history to reach 3,000 strikeouts and the first to do it in a Dodgers uniform.

Of the 18 pitchers in baseball’s exclusive 3,000-strikeout club, all but four — Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander — are in the Hall of Fame. Sabathia retired after 2019 and is not yet eligible for Hall-of-Fame voting, and Verlander is still active.

September 12, 2021:  With an immaculate inning in the second – striking out the side on nine pitches — Max has completed three such innings.  He joins Chris Sale and Sandy Koufax as the only pitchers on record to accomplish the feat. Scherzer became the 19th player in MLB history with 3,000 strikeouts.

2021 Season: At 37 years old, former division rival Max Scherzer is still a force to be reckoned with. His 7.2 WAR leads upcoming free-agent starters.

Since his trade to the Dodgers at the 2021 deadline, he posted a 1.98 ERA over 11 regular-season starts and helped propel a rudderless Dodgers ship into October. They won every single one of his 11 games, though they lost the division title to the Giants for the first time since 2012.

The three-time Cy Young winner has struck out 200+ batters every season since 2012 (not including the shortened 2020) and has a lifetime 3.16 ERA over 14 seasons. He’s consistent in October, too; a 3.22 ERA over 26 career games, with 160 strikeouts over 128 2/3 postseason innings.  (Gabrielle Starr - Oct. 20, 2021)

Nov 17, 2021:  Former Nationals ace Max Scherzer finished third in voting for the 2021 NL Cy Young Award.

Corbin Burnes of the Brewers was named the winner by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America with 12 first-place votes (151 total points), ahead of Zack Wheeler of the Phillies (12 first-place votes, 141 total points) and Scherzer (six first-place votes, 113 total points). Scherzer also received five second-place votes, 13 third-place votes and six fourth-place votes.

July 27, 2022: Scherzer's 5th strikeout of the game was his 40th in his career on his birthday, passing Randy Johnson for the most by a player on their birthday in MLB history.

Age During 2023 Season: 38

An oblique strain prevented Scherzer from racking up enough innings to compete for his fourth Cy Young Award, but when he was healthy, he was predictably brilliant in his first season with the Mets. The eight-time All-Star recorded his 200th win last season, and even as he approaches 40, Scherzer seems to have a lot left in the tank.  (Tim Kelly - Feb. 1, 2023)

March 2006: Max slammed his hand in a door before the University of Missouri's season opening game. Then, he missed some time with a mild case of tendinitis in his biceps/shoulder.

June 20–late July 2008: Scherzer was on the D.L. with right shoulder inflammation and fatigue, missing five weeks.

February 20-March 8, 2009: Max was injured and got a late start on spring training. He had a cortisone shot before spring training.

March 27-April 14, 2009: Scherzer began the season on the D.L. with an injured/stiff shoulder. 

January 9, 2017: Max was diagnosed with a stress fracture on the knuckle of his right ring finger on his pitching hand.

Scherzer has spoken to a few hand specialists, and they agree that the injury is unusual. They had never heard of a stress fracture in the lower-right ring-finger knuckle. He first developed the injury after an Aug. 25 start against the Orioles, and it was initially diagnosed as a sprain. It did not bother him in-game, so he pitched through it, making his final seven starts of the regular season.

At some point during that time, the sprain transformed into a stress fracture, revealed during an MRI in December. Since the injury wasn't healing, Scherzer was forced to withdraw from the World Baseball Classic at the beginning of January, something he said still disappoints him. He has been able to throw tennis and lacrosse balls, trying to keep his arm in functional shape. (J Clllier - MLB.com - Feb 16, 2017)

August 18-28, 2017: Scherzer was placed on the 10-day disabled list with left neck inflammation.

July 15-25, 2019:  The Nationals placed Scherzer on the 10-day IL.

July 19, 2019: Max received a cortisone shot this in an attempt to clear up the inflammation in the bursa sac under his right shoulder blade. Originally, the Nats diagnosed Scherzer with a mid-back strain, but he revealed prior to the game against the Braves that he is dealing with a condition known as scapulothoracic bursitis. 

Scherzer, who says he has received plenty of help from Google, said the inflammation is contained between his scapula and ribs, but there’s nothing wrong structurally with his muscles and his scapula is still solid.

“It’s like having a rock in your shoe and trying to run,” Scherzer said to describe the injury. “That’s the best analogy it feels like trying to throw a ball.”

July 26-Aug 22, 2019: Max was on the IL with a mild rhomboid strain.

March 10, 2020: Max Scherzer was pushed back from his Spring Training start for what he described as “an ailment.”

“It's on my right side,” Scherzer explained. “Just a combination between lat, serratus, oblique. Just that whole general area. Once I adjusted my mechanics to alleviate the rhomboid stress, I shifted out to the side where I always had it. Just that part was just lagging behind in terms of where my arm strength was and how I was long tossing in January. Just that part was just a little bit behind. It's just been playing catchup. “There's not even a strain. There's no MRIs. There's nothing like that. This is purely just a fatigue, endurance thing.”

Aug 5, 2020: Scherzer had sustained what he described as an “ailment” last week while running sprints. He recovered in a day, then threw 112 pitches and struck out 10 over 7 1/3 innings in a win over the Blue Jays on July 29. Scherzer tweaked his hamstring again, but after experiencing that first quick turnaround, he thought he would be able to do the same vs. the Mets.

“This one was just a little bit different,” he said. “It’s not a major injury, or really a minor injury.”

Aug 7, 2020: Max Scherzer’s status is day to day since tweaking his right hamstring and leaving the game after one inning. He threw two days later.

“Max is Max,” Martinez said. “He's out there, said he feels OK. He wants to see what level he's at. So I'll talk to him more after he throws and see where he's at.”

Feb 19, 2021: Scherzer has to dial back that pace after spraining his left ankle while running and doing intervals as part of his conditioning two weeks ago. The 36-year-old right-hander felt discomfort when he attempted to throw a bullpen session. As a result, manager Dave Martinez said the Nationals are going to “slow him down a little bit and take it day to day.”

Feb 22, 2021: Scherzer, who sprained his left ankle during conditioning drills two weeks before Spring Training, is progressing in the Nationals’ day-to-day approach. He threw from a distance of 60 feet.

June 11, 2021:  Scherzer felt optimistic after exiting the against the Giants having thrown just 12 pitches. His early departure was caused by a tweak in his groin, and an MRI showed there was inflammation, but no muscle strain.

“It’s really best-case scenario in terms of what the injury is and that I’m really day to day, and that this could subside pretty quickly here,” Scherzer said after the Nats’ 1-0 loss.

June 13, 2021: Ten pitches into his bullpen session at Nationals Park, right-hander Max Scherzer experienced discomfort in his groin and knew he would not be ready to make his scheduled start against the Pirates.

“Got to the mound, and I just still wasn’t able to fully drive off that leg,” Scherzer said. “Is it possible I could make a start? It’s possible, but you just don’t run that risk here in June. So I’m just not going to be able to go. You just can’t take that risk in June if I’m not able to get off the mound.”

June 12-22, 2021: Max was on the IL with groin inflammation.

July 26, 2021: Two days after being scratched from his scheduled start, Max Scherzer threw a 40-pitch bullpen session without any immediate issues prior to the series opener against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Though the right-hander said he felt fine as he walked off the field, he wanted to wait to see how his right triceps responded over the next few hours. Scherzer noted that it flared up last time around first pitch after a pregame throwing session seemingly went OK.

"He threw the ball well, but he likes that recovery period," said manager Dave Martinez. "I talked to him after and he said in a few hours he'll know, more or less, how he feels. He likes to take that grace period and recover. But the ball came out really well, he threw well and he felt good."

April 2, 2022: Scherzer is dealing with a hamstring issue and isn’t sure when he’ll pitch next.

May 19, 2022: Mad Max was on the IL with left oblique strain. The team announced that an MRI revealed Max Scherzer has a “moderate to high-grade internal oblique strain,” an injury that comes with an estimated recovery timeline of 6-8 weeks.

Scherzer’s injury occurred May 18 at Citi Field, where he pulled himself out of a start due to tightness in his side. He called the injury a “zing” in his midsection, serious enough to warrant an MRI the following morning. According to manager Buck Showalter, Scherzer has also been dealing with blister issues for most of the month, though the oblique diagnosis is by far the more sinister one.

June 4-July 5, 2022: Mets right-hander Max Scherzer has clarified reports of a dog bite on his hand, issuing a statement explaining the incident.

"Just clearing a few things up," he began on Twitter. "My dog Rafi hurt her leg on a run. She was howling in pain, and I went to calm her down by putting my hands on her. When I did that, she bit my right hand. Fortunately, it wasn't a bad bite. I took one day off from throwing and was able to long toss the next day. This will have no effect on my rehab, and this is literally a non-story."