Proper-hander Max Scherzer has agreed to a contract to return to the Blue Jays, based on a report from MLB Community insider Jon Heyman. The membership did not affirm the information.
The deal is for one-year at $3 million, and can embrace $10 million in incentives that begin at 65 innings pitched, and the contact may even embrace no-trade safety, based on Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Scherzer’s resume speaks for itself. The precise-hander is likely one of the best pitchers in baseball historical past, amassing three Cy Younger Awards and eight All-Star choices whereas posting a 3.22 ERA and a 131 ERA+. He’s gained two World Sequence titles and ranks eleventh all time with 3,489 strikeouts.
In fact, not even future Corridor of Famers are resistant to the results of getting old. Now 41, Scherzer has battled a number of accidents over the previous two years, making simply 26 regular-season begins in that span. He completed the 2025 common season with a career-worst 5.19 ERA over 85 innings after becoming a member of the Blue Jays on a one-year, $15.5 million deal final offseason.
Regardless of his powerful common season, Scherzer proved to be an asset for Toronto in October. With the Blue Jays attempting to dig out of a 2-1 collection deficit in opposition to the Mariners within the ALCS, he picked up an enormous win in Recreation 4, holding Seattle to 2 runs in 5 2/3 innings.
“So long as I generally is a starter on a championship-caliber group, I need to maintain taking part in,” Scherzer stated on the time. “If my physique’s wholesome, I need to maintain taking part in. And ever since I obtained over this thumb situation, it actually type of put a jolt in me that I can nonetheless pitch at this stage.”
Scherzer did stable work in his two World Sequence begins in opposition to the Dodgers as nicely, together with 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball in Recreation 7. If Toronto had gained that recreation, maybe Scherzer would have reconsidered his retirement stance and ridden into the sundown with a 3rd ring on his finger. However we’ll by no means know for certain. The Blue Jays misplaced Recreation 7 in heartbreaking vogue, denying Scherzer an opportunity at a storybook ending and giving him one more reason to return for his nineteenth MLB season.
