How a Jacob deGrom pitch helped Texas Rangers land Max Scherzer
ARLINGTON – And you thought Jacob deGrom had made his last pitch for the Rangers this year. Turns out, he’s pretty effective even with a cumbersome brace on his surgically-repaired elbow.
For instance: He made a nice one to Max Scherzer on Saturday.
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As Scherzer, disenchanted with an “about-face” in vision from the New York Mets, started to survey his escape from New York, he called his former rotation mate. Scherzer, 39, wants to win again and wants to balance his off-the-field life with his off-season home in Jupiter, where his kids are in school. The Rangers, needing to shore up a rotation worn thin by injuries, were interested. DeGrom’s message: Come on down. Weather may be hot, but the water in first place is just fine.
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“Knowing him well, it made it a bit easier to put trust in his words,” Scherzer said during an 18-minute introductory press conference Tuesday. “I was trying to get a feel for what the organization was about, how much he really enjoyed all the guys and the staff here. He said this was a great situation, a great fit. The guys were playing hard and playing well together and that this was a good situation for him. If I were to come over, it would be a great situation for myself as well.”
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And yada, yada, yada: Here he is. He will make his first start for the club on Thursday against the Chicago White Sox.
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The past 48 hours had been tumultuous for Scherzer. Even though the Mets struggled all year, himself included, he’d been given no indication the team was giving up on the season. Or in 2024, the last year of his contract. That all changed in the middle of the week when the Mets traded closer David Robertson to Miami.
It caught Scherzer by surprise. He’d had enough issues this year trying to command his slider and trying to tone down a career-high in home run balls. On Friday, he started, shut down his old teammates in Washington and then said he’d like to have a conversation with GM Billy Eppler about the team’s direction. Eppler told him, um, yeah, uh, well, things have changed, and the Mets were going to sell off pieces and “transition” towards contending again in 2025.
Scherzer responded by kindly asking to speak to the owner, too. Steve Cohen, who gave out big contracts the last two winters like they were promotional bobbleheads, echoed his GM. Scherzer didn’t exactly demand a trade but did let it be known that, sure, he’d waive his no-trade clause.
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“[Eppler’s] answer was that the team was now kind of shifting vision,” Scherzer said. “It was not going to be a reload situation in New York. It was going to be more of a transition in 2024. They were looking to make decisions to compete outside my contract window. I said: ‘Ok, yeah, that’s brand new and different than anything I’d ever heard out of Steve’s mouth.’
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“I was like: ‘I’ve got to hear this directly from Steve. So, I had a phone call with Steve. He basically articulated the same vantage point that was the new vision for the Mets. Players under contract for next year could be potentially sold off at the deadline and the team could be really flipped around at the deadline. Once that became official that was the vision for the Mets, I said I’d waive my no-trade clause under those pretenses.”
Funny he should mention that.
The Rangers had already started calling about him. By the time Scherzer was done talking with Cohen, about all that needed to be worked through was whether the pitcher would exercise his player option for $43.3 million in 2024. For the Rangers, the extra control was necessary. They see him at the front of the rotation for the remainder of this season and 2024, though it’s possible deGrom could be back sometime before the end of that season. DeGrom will have the immobilization brace removed from his elbow next week, some seven weeks after elbow ligament repair.
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He’ll start doing some shoulder work, though the only pitches he’ll throw for a while are the kind he tossed to Scherzer over the weekend.
“He’s intense and he’s going to compete like nobody else,” deGrom said. “He’s going to help the Rangers win. And that’s going to be fun.”
It will be more fun if Scherzer can solve the issues that have dogged his season.
“I’ve kind of had a Jekyll and Hyde season,” he said. “I’ve been giving up homers at a rate I’m not comfortable with. I’ve been trying to make adjustments and trying to iron things out. I feel like over the past couple of weeks, I’ve kind of identified some of the right things. As much as it’s been frustrating and it’s been up and down for me, I’m also in a spot where I’m healthy, getting my mechanics right, throwing the ball well, and, well, you get to first place, now you have to win. That’s what it’s about. That’s where I want to be.”
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On Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
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Source: The Dallas Morning News
