The unthinkable, the unimaginable has happened. Mad Max is coming to the Mets.
Three-time Cy Young award winner Max Scherzer will join a Mets rotation headlined by Jacob deGrom, Scherzer’s former rival in the NL East, to form the most dominant 1-2 punch in MLB.
The Mets offered Scherzer a three-year, $130 million contract with an opt-out after the second year, according to sources, making for roughly $43 million in average annual value (AAV). That tops Gerrit Cole’s deal with the Yankees (nine years, $324 million) for the largest AAV on a contract in MLB history.
Steve Cohen’s historic spending spree blew the Mets past MLB’s current $210 million competitive balance tax threshold. That threshold may look different in the league’s next Collective Bargaining Agreement, but Cohen had made it clear as early as June that if the Mets were going to go over the threshold and face the penalties, which are negligible, they would spend in a major way.
“We’re not going over for a million, two million bucks,” Cohen said earlier this year. “That’s stupid. If you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it.”
Scherzer, 37, is coming off an excellent season between the Nationals and Dodgers. He went 15-4 and posted a career-best 2.46 ERA with 236 strikeouts, the fourth-most in MLB in 2021, across 30 starts.
Scherzer has a 3.22 ERA in 26 postseason games (21 starts) and 128.2 innings. Scherzer has slowed down a bit with age – he had a dead arm in the 2021 playoffs and recently experienced back and shoulder issues – but it has hardly impacted his performance in comparison to the rest of the league. Since 2016, Scherzer leads MLB’s pitchers with a 33.2 fWAR. Right behind Scherzer? DeGrom with a 30.5 fWAR.
His $130 million contract is the fifth-largest in Mets franchise history, behind Francisco Lindor ($341 million), David Wright ($138 million), deGrom ($137.5 million) and Johan Santana ($137.5 million).
The Mets’ mighty splash of the offseason, just days before an expected lockout, answers most of the rotation questions that had loomed large since well before the official end of the regular season. And the Mets top brass is still busy working to add pitching depth.
Scherzer will create a terrifying 1-2 punch behind deGrom, while also joining Taijuan Walker, who registered a 4.47 ERA last season, and Carlos Carrasco, who will look to bounce back from his disappointing 2021 as part of the Mets pitching staff.
Between Scherzer and deGrom, the Mets rotation will feature five Cy Young awards. Next year will be the first time since 2008, when Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana created a powerful punch, the Mets will showcase multiple Cy Young award winners at the front of their rotation. It’s the absolute best that Mets fans could hope for.
The Amazin’s can also simply be happy they don’t have to face “Mad Max” anymore. In a poetic twist, the Mets are scheduled to open the 2022 season against the Nationals, Scherzer’s former squad, at Citi Field on March 31.
Across his 26 starts against the Mets, Scherzer is 14-5 with a 2.68 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and 213 strikeouts in 161 innings. The 6-foot-3 right-hander already has terrific numbers at Citi Field, going 10-2 with a 2.14 ERA, .090 WHIP and 125 strikeouts – including the no-hitter Scherzer threw against the Mets on their home turf on Oct. 3, 2015. Combined with his familiarity with the NL East following seven seasons on the Nationals, plus his 2.40 ERA across six postseason games on their 2019 championship team, Scherzer should have no problem getting used to his new surroundings in Flushing.
While many in the industry believed Scherzer was hesitant to return to the East Coast, particularly after his successful second-half run with the Dodgers, the Mets’ record-shattering offer of $43 million AAV was reportedly the most lucrative proposal he received. Along with Cohen’s Mets, the Dodgers, Angels and Giants were said to be the final teams in the mix for the eight-time All-Star. In the past few days, the Mets zeroed in on their man even as other top targets signed elsewhere.
Sunday was a busy day for the MLB Hot Stove. As top-tier starting pitchers started flying off the board, the Mets were focused on a brighter horizon. Kevin Gausman, the Mets’ fallback if they didn’t land Scherzer, signed with the Blue Jays on a five year, $110 million deal. Jon Gray, the Coors Field right-hander, signed with the Texas Rangers, who made an even bigger splash by signing infielder Marcus Semien on a seven-year, $175 million deal.
Prior to this past weekend, the Mets saw their own star pitcher in Noah Syndergaard take a bigger deal with the Angels – and Aaron Loup, the Amazin’s best reliever in 2021, joined Thor in Los Angeles.
After a slow start to the offseason, largely due a front office search that resulted in Billy Eppler becoming the Mets general manager, Cohen flipped the Mets’ fortune by letting his money do the talking. In the past few days, Cohen spent over $254 million signing free agents. The Mets landed Starling Marte (four years, $78 million), Mark Canha (two years, $26.5 million), Eduardo Escobar (two years, $20 million) and of course, Scherzer (three years, $130 million). And they’re likely not done. When all their deals are settled this winter, the Mets are expected to carry the highest payroll in MLB.
As things currently stand, the Mets are at the top of the food chain for the first time in over three decades with a projected 2022 payroll of $267 million. Cohen’s financial advantage in the free agent market has put the rest of the league on notice. The Mets are major contenders now, and for years to come.
