Max Scherzer and his wife love Toronto: Will the Blue Jays run it back with Mad Max?
Photo credit: Erika Scherzer - Instagram
Should the Toronto Blue Jays run it back one more time with Max Scherzer?
Scherzer's wife Erica took to Instagram this week to articulate what the Toronto experience meant to the the two and their four children.
When Max signed with Toronto I had a feeling we would enjoy the experience. Never could I have imagined just how special this season would turn out to be. Out of 18 seasons in MLB none has had an impact on our lives quite like this one.
Toronto, our family fell in love with your beauty, culture and people. Playing for an entire country is truly special.
Normally at the end of a season, regardless of the outcome, you're ready to go home and recharge. Never have I seen a team full of players and their families that did not want the season to end and wished they could play for many more weeks, just to get more time together.
I feel incredibly blessed to still live this beautiful baseball life and to watch Max live out his dream. I'm devastated the season is over, proud for what this team accomplished, and grateful for the experiences and lifelong friendships that came from it. 💙
Toronto, our family fell in love with your beauty, culture and people. Playing for an entire country is truly special.
Normally at the end of a season, regardless of the outcome, you're ready to go home and recharge. Never have I seen a team full of players and their families that did not want the season to end and wished they could play for many more weeks, just to get more time together.
I feel incredibly blessed to still live this beautiful baseball life and to watch Max live out his dream. I'm devastated the season is over, proud for what this team accomplished, and grateful for the experiences and lifelong friendships that came from it. 💙
Scherzer signed a one-year, $15.5MM contract with the Blue Jays last offseason.
Can Scherzer remain healthy over the long haul in 2026?
The 41-year-old went on the injured list after his first start with what the team called thumb inflammation on his throwing hand.
Scherzer explained that he'd been dealing with thumb discomfort going back to the '23 season - which he said was partially responsible for the shoulder problems he'd faced in 2023-24.
The Jays played things cautiously so as not to jeopardize his shoulder or elbow health. Scherzer was sidelined well into June.
He stayed healthy the rest of the way and made 16 starts, albeit with mixed results.
Scherzer allowed a career-worst 5.19 earned runs per nine across 85 innings. His 22.9% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk percentage were solid enough, but he gave up almost two home runs for every nine innings pitched.
The longball has become increasingly problematic as his stuff has dipped late in his career.
Scherzer still has solid velocity, averaging 93.6 MPH on his four-seam fastball, but it's not the mid-90s juice that he had at his peak.
This is obviously no longer peak Max Scherzer, but he showed he has something left in the tank when the lights were brightest.
The Jays held him out of the Division Series because they felt he matched up poorly with the Yankees.
They penciled him back into the rotation for the ALCS and the World Series. Despite a middling strikeout-to-walk ratio, Scherzer gutted out 14 1/3 innings of six-run ball over three starts.
He got the win in ALCS Game 4 and turned over a lead to the Toronto bullpen in both World Series outings, though the Jays went on to lose each game (including Game 7) in extra innings.
Following the gut-wrenching game 7 loss to the Dodgers in the World Series, Scherzer articulated his admiration for his teammates and the experience of his one season pitching for Canada's team before becoming a free agent yet again.
«The heart that this team and the way we cared for each other, this is gut-wrenching,» Scherzer said in the emotional aftermath of the Jays' Rogers Centre clubhouse. «The emotion we played with the pride that we played with.
Scherzer will be limited to one-year deals for the rest of his career.
Do you think the Toronto Blue Jays will run it back one more time with Max Scherzer?
Have your say in the poll below.
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