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The New York Mets signed Max Scherzer to be their ace. And for about one-ish seasons, he was: except for when they needed him most.
Last year, while they were in the thick of a divisional race with the Atlanta Braves, Scherzer got absolutely pegged in a must-win matchup down in Atlanta that arguably decided the division, as he gave up four runs on nine hits and two home runs in just six innings.
Then, just a few weeks later, in the team’s first playoff game in years, Scherzer got rocked by the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the Wild Card round, as he gave up seven hits and seven runs in just 4.2 innings of work.
Thus, it could be argued that of all the reasons this brief, two-season era of Mets baseball failed, Scherzer’s shortcomings in the clutch are at the top.
All of this is only exasperated by the fact that now Scherzer is out of town — the Mets shipped him to the Texas Rangers as part of their current trade deadline firesale — he’s currently selling out the organization by revealing what the team’s general manager allegedly said about next season (it would be SHOCKING if Billy Eppler kept his job, anyway).
According to a report from The Athletic, Scherzer asked Eppler if the Mets were “reloading for 2024,” to which he replied: “No, we’re not. Basically our vision now is for 2025-2026, ’25 at the earliest, more like ’26. We’re going to be making trades around that.”
Scherzer then reiterated similar comments during a press conference in Texas:
"They're looking to compete now for 2025 and 2026. It was not gonna be a reload situation in New York. It was gonna be more of a transition in 2024."
Max Scherzer talks about his conversations with Billy Eppler and Steve Cohen around the trade deadline: pic.twitter.com/s9hT1IsVEd
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) August 2, 2023
To be fair to Scherzer, though, the Mets’ pinning their hopes on a man that’s nearly 40 years old to be their ace was unrealistic in the first place: he was never up to the task and his performances over the course of 2022 and 2023 proved it.
All told, during his career with the Mets, Scherzer pitched 253 innings and posted a 20-9 record with a 3.02 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP.