Scherzer will make his Rangers debut Thursday against the White Sox at Globe Life Field.
Over the weekend, Scherzer waived his no-trade clause to facilitate a trade to Texas, marking his return to the American League for the first time since 2014, when he pitched for the Tigers. Though his numbers have taken a significant step back this season from 2022 while he's served up home runs at a career-high rate, the 39-year-old Scherzer still profiles as a strong top-of-the-rotation arm and should bolster the Rangers' hopes of claiming their first AL West crown since 2016. The move from the Mets' Citi Field to the Rangers' Globe Life Field represents a slight downgrade in terms of park factors, but Scherzer's overall fantasy outlook could improve with the team change since he'll be backed by a stronger offense that can help propel him to more wins.
The Mets agreed to trade Scherzer to the Rangers on Saturday in exchange for Luisangel Acuna, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports.
Scherzer waived his full no-trade protection to allow the deal to go through and also exercised his $43.33 million player option for 2024, per Jeff Passan of ESPN.com. The 39-year-old allowed just one run over seven innings Friday against the Nationals, so he won't debut for his new team until the middle of next week. The acquisition is good timing for Texas since ace Nathan Eovaldi (elbow) is having his second straight start skipped Sunday in San Diego, and the addition of Scherzer will provide some relief to the rotation.
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Mets' Max Scherzer: Trade to Rangers in place
Rotowire
The Mets agreed to trade Scherzer to the Rangers on Saturday, but the deal is pending Scherzer's approval, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports.
There's no word yet on what the Mets are getting in return, but Scherzer will have to waive his no-trade clause before the deal can be finalized. If the trade does go through, Scherzer will join a Rangers rotation that already ranks fifth in the majors in ERA.
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Mets' Max Scherzer: Sharp in ninth win
Rotowire
Scherzer (9-4) picked up the win in Friday's 5-1 victory over the Nationals, allowing one run on six hits and two walks over seven innings. He struck out seven.
The 39-year-old blanked Washington for six innings until Luis Garcia took him deep in the seventh, and Scherzer exited after 103 pitches, including 30 called or swinging strikes. The Mets are sellers at the trade deadline, so this could have been his last start in a New York uniform, but Scherzer's $43.3 million player option for 2024 and full no-trade clause are hurdles for any potential deals. He's at least pitching well enough to be of interest to a contender -- he has five quality starts in his last eight outings, posting a 3.53 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 61:16 K:BB through 51 innings over that stretch.
Scherzer dropped to 8-4 on the season in Saturday's 8-6 loss to the Red Sox after surrendering five earned runs on six hits and two walks in six innings while striking out seven.
Scherzer has been a flyball pitcher throughout his career, and while he's mostly done well to offset damage to his ratios by striking out batters at a prolific clip, his command seems to have betrayed him in his age-38 season. He was stung hard by the long ball Saturday, with the Red Sox taking him deep a season-high four times before he was lifted after 93 pitches. Scherzer has now served up 15 home runs over his last nine starts and owns a 1.97 HR/9 for the season, almost double his career rate (1.04). Scherzer is likely due for a turnaround in his home-run rate to some degree, but skills degradation may at least partially explain some of his ongoing struggles. Per Statcast, opposing hitters have posted a 10.3 percent barrel rate, 89.1 mph average exit velocity and 38.7 percent hard-hit rate against Scherzer this season. All of those figures are the worst of Scherzer's career since the beginning of the Statcast era in 2015.
