TORONTO -- Max Scherzer still rocks back and forth and bounces when he talks about baseball. The topic alone electrifies him.
Scherzer said Saturday at Rogers Centre that he’s not going to make any decisions yet on his future, but it’s so clear that this game gives him something irreplaceable. As a pitcher, he’s one of the greatest who’s ever lived. As a competitor, he’s one of one. The end is near, but the 42-year-old Scherzer isn’t ready to say if it’s time just yet.
“I’m going to make this decision about playing next year later in the offseason,” Scherzer said. “I’ve gone through ups and downs throughout the season, I get it, but I’ve gotten to the point where I’m pretty healthy. I’ve talked to everybody in my inner circle and we all kind of feel the same way. We don’t need to make a decision today. Get to the offseason and see how things unfold.”
Scherzer is extremely likely to be a Baseball Hall of Famer, a pitching giant who stands alongside Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw as the faces of this generation on the mound. He’s ninth all-time in strikeouts (3,550), still chasing Verlander with one start left in Sunday’s finale.
There are so many ways Scherzer could go about this next year. When his playing days are over, Scherzer wants to get involved in youth and amateur sports, coaching his kids and his friends’ kids. We’re not only talking about baseball here, but basketball and football, too. He’s passionate about the idea that young kids should be playing sports, not just specializing in one, and he wants to be part of that. There will also be the pull of business interests, coaching, broadcasting, ownership stakes, you name it. He’ll have every option in the world.
If he pitches, he could join a team in camp or even kick it down the road a bit longer, waiting for the perfect situation early in the season or midway through. For now, Scherzer insists that this is all still up in the air.
“I have no idea how I’m going to feel here in six months,” Scherzer said. “For me, right now it’s just about being healthy, pitching in this last game and having fun with it, then seeing what happens. I really don’t have any expectations of what happens. Pitching is so much fun. You never know. Really, I have no idea.”
Scherzer’s two seasons in Toronto will be remembered for a handful of moments on the field, like when he barked John Schneider off the mound in Game 4 of the 2025 ALCS in Seattle, but more for what he brought to this organization and clubhouse. Scherzer posted a 5.64 ERA over these two seasons and dealt with multiple injuries, but he’s left an impact on the young pitchers and set a standard with his intensity and competitiveness.
He lights up talking about last year’s run, too. He’s a baseball nut. Listening to him, it’s hard to believe he’ll call it a career just yet.
“That is such a memory. Game 7 of the World Series, there is just nothing better than that,” Scherzer said. “That is baseball at its pinnacle. To be having that ball in that situation, competing like that and the way we played, that’s just a lifelong memory. That’s a baseball memory. I’ve had so many great memories in my career, yet here I am at 41, having one of my best memories in baseball pitching in Game 7 of the World Series in Toronto.”
Sunday will come on short rest for Scherzer, but with the Blue Jays eliminated, there’s some room for good stories. It will likely be Scherzer calling the shots, going as deep as he’s comfortable going, and if Verlander is still within reach for eighth all-time on the strikeout list, maybe that line gets pushed a little further.
“I just want to go out there and pitch tomorrow, knowing that you never know, it could be my last,” Scherzer said. “Just in case. We’ve been eyeing this on the calendar for a couple of weeks now, knowing I was going to make the start in Baltimore, but the kids were in school so we weren’t able to get them to Baltimore. We had circled this one, if we were out of it, to still pitch Sunday. It gives me a chance to pitch in front of my kids one more time, if it is [the end]. If it’s not, who knows?”