Blue Jays Bullpen Gets Major Boost With Long Awaited Return of Max Scherzer
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The Toronto Blue Jays have been scrambling to fill holes in their bullpen rotation, due to key injuries, since the first week of the year. Max Scherzer is predicted to make his return this upcoming week which will be his first game since March 29 where the Jays show he only threw for three innings.
Scherzer has been recovering from a right-thumb injury since then. Around the same time Bowden Francis landed on the injury list with an issue to his right shoulder. Luckily Eric Lauer had earned his position as a more permanent player in the rotation leaving only one hole to fill, rather than two.
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No one may be more excited about this return than John general manager John Schneider. Keegan Matheson (Official MLB reporter for the Jays) reported that Schneider jokingly spoke on the return of his pitcher:
"I’m really looking forward to him getting really mad at me when I take him out in a regular-season game".
Matheson also discussed the immediate positive impact that the return of the veteran will make for Toronto after they fell 7-1 to the Chicago White Sox.
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"Scherzer’s return will accomplish one thing immediately, though, which is to simplify the lives of Schneider and pitching coach Pete Walker. They’ll finally be free to manage their bullpen around a “normal” rotation"
Scherzer is expected to take the mound either Tuesday or Thursday for their series against the .500 Cleveland Guardians. He has been pitching in the Majors since 2008 and in 467 career games has an impressive 3.16 ERA.
The Blue Jays show that his best season was not too long ago, 2022 with the New York Mets. He posted a 2.29 ERA with 173 strikeouts in 23 games. So clearly his age is not a factor as the 40-year-old is still performing at the top of his game.
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Toronto is well within grasp of the American League East Title, especially with a new solid rotation. MLB standings shows that they sit only three games behind the New York Yankees and we are yet to reach the half-way mark on the season.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.