The Max Scherzer Era or Max Scherzer’s ERA is still going up.
September 14, 2023Unless you live on the North Pole or avoid any sort of sports news, you’ve heard the 2023 New York Mets season has been an utter disaster. The Mets aren’t shy from disappointing their fan base, but after the single most disappointing 101 win season in Sports history, this year was a true F you to their supporters. Even a painful Mets optimist like me foresaw a bit of a setback, but not a mathematical elimination in June. While it’s impossible to blame one single individual, today’s post will more of less do that. Max Scherzer, congratulations, you’re Bloggin Hood’s least favorite Met of the 2020s. But hey, there’s still seven years for others to earn that honor.
As a 36-year-old, I was born the year after the Mets won the World Series, and my memories of the team in the early to mid 90s is shaky at best. I don’t remember the Met dubbed as the worst money can buy, but I sure as Hell know the effects of the Bobby Bonilla contract. I’d say 1997 is when I have real memories of the team, which gives me 26 years of having both irrational love and hate players. For every Michael Conforto, who’d I’d defend while in a 0-45 streak even if he sent me a DM calling me a fat sack of shit, there were players I always disliked.
I should specify before I really get into this, I’m talking about the players on the field. I have absolutely no knowledge of them off the field, unless theirs reports about them. When I say hate and despise, I mean their play and the impact on the Mets. Bloggin Hood isn’t known for sane, mild takes, but I’m also not a psychopath who tries to direct message a player to tell them they suck. They’re human beings and deserve to be treated like one.
With that said, it’s not a very funny article if I write “Sucks that they lost. I hope the players got some root beer floats after a backbreaking 3-2 loss to eliminate them for the playoffs”. I’m going to rant and rave like a lunatic, but I’ll keep it a to a respectable hating level.
I don’t care how many saves he had in his career; there is no way I’d ever feel good about an Armando Benetiz appearance in a one run game. Granted, shaky closers are a proud tradition in Mets history, but Benetiz made it an art form. Of course, Benetiz walked* 1
I’ll briefly give an honorable mention to the Javy Baez’s two month reign of terror. Baez actually put up good numbers as a Met, but brought actively gave fans a thumbs down because they were due the the team’s underachieving record. He also had the Sandy Alderson search for a missing diamond earring after a game after chastising him to the thumb down situation earlier that day. It’s arguably the most embarrassing moment in my Mets fandom.
The Mets also traded Pete Crow Armstrong, a current top 12 prospect in baseball, for a two month Baez rental. The team didn’t sniff the postseason, but at least the players voiced their distaste of the fans. That was a fun stretch of baseball. Armstrong was called up earlier this week and he’ll definitely haunt the team.
Of course, all of these fail to compare to my least favorite Met of all time – Tom Glavine. The fact that I can call him a Met is a disgrace. Glavine encapsulates everything wrong with the former Mets regime’s team building strategies.
When the Mets signed Glavine, it checked all of their favorite boxes. He was an accomplished star with plenty of milage on him, signing a five year contract at the age of 37. Hmm, there’s a number to keep in mind. Additionally, he had a treasure trove of accomplishments – 2 Cy Young awards, and several other top 3 appearances. Before joining the Mets, he was a 8 time All Star, and arguably the best lefty starter in the National League. Other than age, there was no red flags, right?
Well, perhaps the approximate 3,300 Innings prior to putting on a Mets uniform was a red flag. That’s a lot of wear and tear on the arm, but honestly, Glavine was a work horse, pitching at least 183 innings in all 5 Mets seasons. For his Mets career, he had a 3.97 ERA and made two all star appearances. On paper, he wasn’t a disaster. Sure, he wasn’t a bonafide ace, but given his age, those are reliable innings, and the Mets offense in that period could provide enough support to win games for a 4 ERA pitcher. What was the problem?
Well, the first problem was Glavine spent the first 16 years with the Braves. The Braves are the Mets biggest rival. Don’t let talk about the Yankees or the Phillies fool you, the Braves are the team true Mets fans hate the most. And, to be fair, calling it a rivalry is insulting to rivalries. The Braves have owned the NL East since its inception, and particularly enjoy beating the Mets’ ass for decades. Glavine was one of the key contributors in constantly keeping the Mets out of the playoffs year after year.
It also didn’t help that the Mets were frigging terrible for the majority of this time, but we’ll ignore that.
When you actively root against a player on a rival team for so long, it’s difficult to bury the hatchet.*** [eft_note] ***I think the Mets can compete in 2024 with a few moves and positive regression, but I’m also a complete sucker and moron. [/eft_ note] Glavine would really have to impress to stop associating him with the Braves. And while his stats were fine, they never were quite good enough for an ace. He always felt like a mercenary. I’m not a fool who thinks players only think of the team and don’t care about this money. This one felt obvious. There’s a reason a rival had no issue with a 16 year standout leaving to a divisional opponent.
The Braves made the postseason seemingly every year, but throughout their dominance of the NL, they only did win one championship with the Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz core. On first thought, I figured Glavine didn’t have the clutch gene. It would explain the disappointment for a lot of Braves seasons. It makes you wonder what’s worse – coming close and having yearly heartbreak, or never coming close and not having to suffer brutal losses.
To be clear, this isn’t a choice. As a fan, you obviously want to complete every year. Plus, the Braves won a World Series during this tenure with Glavine winning the 1995 World Series MVP. So much for not having the clutch gene.
When the Mets season fell apart and they began to trade players, I saw a lot of arguments about, of all people, Tom Glavine. While some Met fans correctly said he was an awful Mets, others pointed to some of the stats and information above, and said he wasn’t bad at all. Well, if you’re on the fence, or in the latter camp, let me explain why the Glavine five-year tenure was a complete disaster with one date – 9/30/2007.
This was the last game of the season. The Mets, who already blew a large division lead against the Phillies, had a win and get in scenario against the Marlins. The Mets were the more talented team and had Tom Glavine on the mound. Glavine, now in his 21st season, had pitched in all sorts of pressure situations. Certainly, a game like this wouldn’t phase him. And boy it sure didn’t.
Glavine gave up seven runs in 1/3rd of an inning. He failed to get two batters out. He was pulled after 36 pitches and left void of all emotion. He wasn’t embarrassed; he didn’t think he did anything wrong. it gets worse. In the bottom of the first, the Mets began to rally back. With one run in and the bases loaded, Ramon Castro, a savant power hitting catcher for like one season, hit a fly ball and raised his fist in the air. He believed he hit a grand slam. We weren’t dead yet.
The ball was 50 feet short of the wall and an easy out. The Mets went on to lose the game and miss the playoffs. I truly believe had Glavine not started, Castro’s hit goes further than the 2002 Mo Vaughn homer.
After the game, Glavine barely said two words, and almost immediately signed back with Atlanta for one last season to round out his career. In the moment, I thought of the Phillies as the team I should hate the most, but now it’s obvious. If anyone ruined the Mets season, it was the Braves! It was as if Glavine was sent as a sleeper agent to implode at the worst possible moment. It set the team back until their run in 2015. In fact, 2008 had a similar collapse that ended the Shea Stadium era. Glavine wasn’t even on the roster, and I blame him for this year too.
Is it fair to consider a five-year tenure a failure for one bad start? Yes, especially when you’re paid to be a big game pitcher. I don’t care about his age or his milage. When you’re a pitcher of Glavine’s level, you’re expected to come through in a big spot. It wasn’t that he pitched bad; a softball machine could have been more efficient. He cleaned out his locker faster than the Marlins’ home run trots off of him.
Up until recently, I didn’t see it, but the parallels between Max Scherzer and Tom Glavine are eerie. No, Scherzer wasn’t a Met for as long as Glavine was, but their tenures with the team are a mirror image.
Before joining the Mets, Scherzer had pitched for a few teams – The Diamondbacks, Tigers, and then the Nationals. While a Nat, Scherzer would regularly dominant the Mets. It seemed the Mets would always face Scherzer in every single Series against Washington, and he’s win every game. This was the rare time in the NL East history where somebody other than the Braves were at the top. The Phillies were on the decline, and the Braves were iffy, but the Nationals were strong.
Unlike the Braves, the Nationals lost occasionally against the Mets, most notably in 2015. However, the Nationals did get a title during this run, and the Mets did not. In 2021, The Nationals began selling off players, which included trading Scherzer to the Dodgers. It was a sudden end to a long run of dominance in Washington. Scherzer seemed better than ever… until the stretch run to the post season rolled around. Then Scherzer was not the same, citing dead arm. In retrospect, that was probably the first sign.
In 2022, Steve Cohen tried to turn the Mets into a contender right away, gambling by paying big money to sign Scherzer for a short Three-year deal. It was a massive price, but I still argue with how the 2022 Mets were built, it made sense. Scherzer would be a stop gap while the Mets restocked the farm system and help them compete right away. Also, you’ll never guess what age Scherzer was when he signed. That’s right. 37.
So a 37-year-old, aging veteran signs a deal with the Mets after being a formal rival for years. I mean, if you wrote this as a story, people would accuse you of plagiarizing the original. Wait until we get to the ending.
Just like with Glavine, many Mets fans stated that Scherzer was a good Met and that he helped change the perception of the team. Have you seen the state of the major league organization in 2023? What perception did Scherzer change? We’re once again a laughingstock organization, and the only value he brought to the team was that we acquired Ronald Acuna’s brother for dealing him to the Rangers and taking on a lot of his salary.
Scherzer’s 2022 looks great on paper. He had a 2.29 ERA and average 10.7 strikeouts per 9 innings and a .90 WHIP. These stats are admittedly ace level. However, they do not tell the full story. For starters, Scherzer only pitched 145 innings, due to an oblique injury that never truly went away. Injuries to an aging pitcher happen. It was the biggest risk of signing him to a lucrative contract. But after his returned to the rotation, the oblique injury never came up… unless he didn’t pitch well.
The biggest culprit was 10/1/2022. This was the series against the Braves that would determine the division. The Mets had held a ten game lead early in the season, but the Braves played at an unsustainable pace… that they sustained for the final five months of the season. While the Mets never really cooled off, the Braves evened up the standings. In this final series of the year, the Mets likely needed one game to win the division. Not even a series win, but one single game.
After losing the first game of the series on a middling deGrom start, Scherzer failed to hold one run leads twice, giving up four runs and nine hits while failing to get out of the 6th inning. He gave up homer runs in the 5th and 6th inning and did not look dominant. Was this a disaster start? No, it wasn’t. But it wasn’t the big game performance the Mets needed. Ultimately, the Mets got swept and lost the division on a tiebreaker.
Scherzer’s next start came in game one of the divisional series against the Padres. Instead of bouncing back, Scherzer disrobed and actually shat on the pitcher’s mound. He gave up seven runs in four plus innings, including two home runs. Scherzer was reigned with boos from the fans. While the Mets ultimately won game two, they lost the series. In the two biggest starts of the season, Scherzer did not deliver. The stats that looked great mean nothing if you can’t deliver when it matters.
2023 was a continuation of the end of 2022. While Scherzer’s overall numbers with the Mets didn’t look that bad, it was actually eerie compared to the Glavine numbers. Roughly a 4.00 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP, Scherzer was a middle of the road starter being paid like his 2017 self. The Mets needed Scherzer to be an ace, and he didn’t have that level anymore.
From the eye test, Scherzer did have movement on his pitches, but they curved into the middle of the plate instead of darting away. He also never had that strikeout pitch, and up until Junie I watched an uncomfortable amount of bad Mets baseball. According to baseball reference, Scherzer has 121 strikeouts in 107 2/3 innings with the Mets. He must have gotten those during every bathroom break. Every two strike count was a battle, as hitters could get just enough to stay alive. This never happened to Scherzer before.
Scherzer also battled injuries on and off throughout the year. Typically, they weren’t enough to keep him out for any extended time, but he’d miss a start here or there. He made sure to reference it every time he struggled. It was never “I pitched bad and need to work on things”. There was always another sentence tacked on to avoid the potential decline. Sometimes it was a nagging injury, or the lack of controlling a pitch. However, it was never fully his fault.
When an athlete loses a step, he or she is the last to admit it. It’s a difficult reality rationalizing that the end of your career is near. I have no doubt Scherzer did everything he could to be an ace, but his body began to fail him. If it was age, father time remains undefeated. If it was injury, Scherzer was selfish for trying to pitch through an injury instead of recovering.
Whatever the answer is, consistently seeing leads evaporate was infuriating as a fan. Plus, the Mad Libs style post game interviews got old. The Mets were going nowhere fast with an ancient pitching staff and the highest payroll in baseball. I give them credit for selling off and trading Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and really anyone on the team with a short contract and value. It was the smart thing to do, even if it meant punting on 2023, and potentially 2024.**** 2
But Scherzer couldn’t even handle that was class. Instead of giving his former organization credit for making him obscenely rich, Scherzer bashed the Mets as if he was on R/Braves. Most players do not speak negatively of their previous organizations, especially when trading you to a team in contention. Scherzer chose not only to burn bridges, but to pour extremely cheap gasoline. At the first option he had, Scherzer told everyone the Mets front office told him they would not try and compete under 2025.
That comment is damning. If true, it means any short-term free agents would stay clear of the Mets. After all, why would someone sign with a rebuilding team? Now, Scherzer crossed all the boxes need to be a Bloggin Hood approved despised player. He pitched for a rival and dominated the team. Then, he was overpaid and significantly underdelivered. And yes, he even surpassed Glavine by bashing the team on the way out. At least Glavine tucked his tail and ran back to Atlanta, who probably Hi-Fived him for his all-time suck fest in his final Mets outing.
Also, did you ever think the reason the team traded so many players was partially because of you? If you pitched better, maybe the Mets wouldn’t have had a fire sale. No, surely it’s the organizations fault that you pitched so horribly.
As of 9/14, Scherzer went on of Insured Reserved list with a strained teres major. Ironically, this was the same injury that delayed Verlander’s Mets debut. It’s an unpredictable book end for the season. It also supports the theory that Scherzer pitched through injuries and made things worse. Scherzer is shut down for the year, barring a miracle. There will be fans who celebrate this injury. Don’t be this fan. I’m writing a long essay bashing Scherzer’s tenure, but injuries should never be celebrated.
Although it’s impossible to know, Scherzer’s ultra competitiveness likely led to some of these injuries. That fire should be commended; it’s more than Glavine showed. But that can of fire can be reckless. I’m confident Scherzer will be back next year, but when pitchers start getting hurt, injuries regularly pop up. I don’t hope this is the end of Scherzer. I’d feel bad for the guy.
I mean, he did get paid over $40 million for the season and helped tank the Mets, so I don’t feel that bad for him. I hope he heals well and comes back next season, but I’m still livid over his Mets tenure, which was all talk an no substaince. I hope his Chinese Take out is filled with baby corn and his fantasy football team disappoints every week.***** 3 Scherzer almost made my compliment Tom Glavine for shit’s sake. I didn’t of course, but still, it was close. That is unforgivable.
There is some sentiment that my take on Scherzer’s tenure is too harsh. Scherzer signing with the Mets was crucial moment in the Cohen era, showing they would be willing to spend. First of all, Francisco Lindor still exists, right? And second of all, didn’t this signing just confirm that we’re willing to overpay declining former superstars, just like the Wilpons did when they were scamming people out of money with Bernie Madoff? If anything, this makes the Mets’ perception worse.
I’d argue trading Scherzer, and then Verlander, was the true sign that this is not your Wilpon era Mets. Sure, the 2023 team sucks a giant ball of sucktastic suckitude, but the team sees the bigger picture. Cohen and the organization were willing to shell out money to remove the team of these players, but also get back blue-chip prospects. Eating this kind of money is unheard of, and no prospect is guaranteed, but the Mets have a much brighter future today than they did in June.
Of course, this means another year to be patient and wait for a chance at a title. That’s fine. I’m sure all these bad seasons and crippling disappointment means I’m getting younger as time passes.
I think the Mets attempt to overpay aging players while restocking the farm system made sense. The minor leagues were bare in 2020, but now, the team has some pretty high-ranking prospects, with a few already at the major league level.****** 4 The short-term plan was an attempt to bridge the gap and try to steal a Championship. 2022 was a pretty good effort, but in true Mets fashion, a 101-season turned out to be a bigger disappointment. There’s only one other Franchise that could manage this, and their name also ends with E-T-S.
Betting on aging players is never the plus EV move, but it was worth a shot. I’m honestly not bitter that it failed. But I’m sure as hell bitter about the end of the Max Scherzer era. He symbolizes just another big contract that didn’t pan out. Was it financially crippling to the organization? No. Steve Cohen probably made back Scherzer’s contract in his return on the market in the time I wrote this paragraph. But still, it’s a stain on the era, not for it failing, but for how it ended.
Until the Mets break through and win, or being a consistent contender for half a decade, they will always be since as the Same ol’ Mets. Scherzer’s tenure aligned with all the aging superstars of the past. But there’s hope. The prospects have tripled after the trade deadline, and Cohen still has the biggest bankroll in the lead. With the official news that David Stearns will become the President of Baseball Operations, I have optimism in the future. For once, it might actually be appropriate to be optimistic again. What an age we live in.
As a very quick aside, Stearns is going to be the first President of Baseball Operations in Mets history. Somehow, the organization hasn’t had one in the past. Isn’t this a common position for teams? No wonder 95% of our transactions fail miserably.
I’m sure in April of 2024, I’ll be riding high on the future. And by June, I’ll probably be the angriest man on Earth. But until then, there’s the basis of potential, in part thanks to Max Scherzer. So truly, I thank you for getting us Luisangel Acuna, Ronald’s younger brother, who hopefully becomes the star in a Mets uniform we’ve been waiting on. All it took was dozens of press conferences filled with excuses, and a lot of disappointment. Yay? I don’t know if Yay is appropriate.
At least as baseball winds down and my team has no choice, I can watch the new, upstart Jets. Now that we have a real quarterback, maybe the team can…
Jets QB Aaron Rodgers ‘heartbroken’ in wake of Achilles tear – ESPN
Oh.
Oh.
Well, there’s always crying.
- roughly 40% of batters faced, so that Jeurys Familia could run.
Familia will always be at the top of my least favorite Mets because of the “What if” factor. When he was a set up man, he was lights out. When he was named the closer, he was lights out, in April and May. But when the Mets needed him to shut the door in the 2015 World Series, he made sure to hang every pitch down the middle. Sure, it’s not his fault the team couldn’t throw out Eric Hosmer inexplicitly running home on contact, but he also gave up a gargantuan homerun in Game 1 that blew a lead and set the tone of the series.
I suppose Familia wasn’t the only party to deserve blame in 2016, but it didn’t help his cause that in 2017, he quickly gave up the only runs in a 1 game playoff. At that point, he was shot. I always didn’t truth him in big moments, but now, other teams were delighted to see Familia on the mound. Familiar bounced around the league for a few years, including a brief revival in Oakland, and even another return to the Mets when they were back to irrelevance. I cheered when the Phillies signed him, but they quickly recognized he was a bad idea. Shame.
There’s been numerous hitters that have failed in New York, mostly because the team regularly brings in stars past their prime. The Mets have a brutal combination of struggling to develop consistent home grown talent, while also overpaying aging stars who left their prime. One such example was Mo Vaughn. Before coming to the Mets, Vaughn was an accomplished hitter, with a career OPS about .900. For the beginning of his Mets tenure, I remember him being pretty solid. In the 2002 Subway Series, Vaughn hit the hardest ball I’ve ever seen. I truly believe that ball would still be going had it not hit the scoreboard. This would propel the Mets to the playoffs.
After that hit, I believe the Mets lost 1,900 consecutive games, and Vaughn did not record another hit. He was out of baseball by the beginning of the next season. For some reason, the Mets uniform seems to give hitters -50% on all of their stats. It’s like playing a challenge run in a video game.** [Efn_note] **Originally, my hitter example was Roberto Alomar, but I saw some of his accusations, and changed it. I’m glad he flamed out in New York.
- *******This is not a reference to Braves fans still doing the absurdly offensive tomahawk celebration that the media still pretends is ok. But sure, go for it.
- Like mine, but that’s unrelated.
- ******We don’t have to talk about Brett Baty right now. Please be good Baty.
