TORONTO – Confident in both Max Scherzer’s stuff and health after an injury-plagued 2024, the Toronto Blue Jays reached an agreement with the three-time Cy Young Award winner on a $15.5 million, one-year deal pending a physical, according to an industry source.
Once finalized, the signing crosses off the final item on the club’s off-season to-do list — a starting pitcher — after it already added Anthony Santander and Andres Gimenez to deepen the lineup, along with Jeff Hoffman, Yimi Garcia and Nick Sandlin to remake the bullpen.
Scherzer’s looming signing should deepen the rotation behind Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios and Chris Bassitt, protecting against any possible regression from Bowden Francis while opening up Yariel Rodriguez for a shift to the bullpen, or into a swing role.
There is some risk, of course, in signing the 40-year-old future Hall-of-Fame candidate, who is coming off a career-low nine starts during a trying 2024 season.
Scherzer was in catch-up mode from the outset last year rehabbing from December 2023 surgery on a herniated disk in his back, and later had two other Injured List stints for right shoulder fatigue and a left hamstring strain.
Still, the Blue Jays feel confident enough in his recovery to bet on the upside an in-form Scherzer offers, as even amid the physical challenges, he posted a 3.95 ERA and 1.154 WHIP with 40 strikeouts in 43.1 innings.
Discussions had simmered between the Blue Jays and Scherzer – an eight-time all-star with a 3.16 ERA over 2,878 innings heading into the 18th season of a remarkable career – for a few weeks but accelerated in recent days, leading to Thursday afternoon’s agreement.
The market for starters has thinned considerably over the course of the winter, with Corbin Burnes, in particular, and Max Fried, to a lesser extent as his price skyrocketed, among the Blue Jays’ early targets.
Other options still available on the open market include Canadian Nick Pivetta, Jack Flaherty, Andrew Heaney and Jose Quintana, while Dylan Cease could be a trade candidate if the San Diego Padres look to move the pending free agent. The Blue Jays opted for the short-term, high-risk, high-reward play in Scherzer.
Whether they can still make further big-money acquisitions is unclear, but GM Ross Atkins hinted at the team being at or near its budget last week during a Zoom call to introduce Santander, although he added that opportunities could still be presented to ownership.
Presumably, then, the business case for such possibilities would need to be exceptionally strong, as the Blue Jays are believed to be around but under the second Competitive Balance Tax threshold of $261 million. That may make landing free agents such as Pete Alonso and Alex Bregman, whom the Blue Jays are often linked to, more difficult.
If that is indeed the case, the question becomes whether the additions they’ve made, along with the players they acquired during their deadline selloff last summer and the talent they already had in-house, is enough for them to contend for a post-season berth after a 74-88 shipwreck last year.
Bigger picture, the question of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s future will soon come into focus with the four-time all-star first baseman saying he won’t discuss a long-term extension after the club’s first full-squad workout of the spring on Feb. 18.
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