Blue Jays’ Max Scherzer Explains Hilarious Story Behind Viral Coin-Flip Moment

Max Scherzer has barely been a Toronto Blue Jay for a year, but he’s already become beloved among the fan base.

When he re-signed a one-year deal a couple of weeks ago, his wife revealed a letter that their daughter wrote that she wanted to send to the Blue Jays asking them to re-sign her dad. The 41-year-old three-time Cy Young winner returned to chase another title, but he also admitted he grew fond of the franchise last season.

Fans enjoyed having him on the team, most notably one night in Toronto when Scherzer “flipped a coin” to determine the strike zone. Scherzer explained how it all happened on a podcast at Blue Jays Today.

The Max Scherzer “Coin Flip”

Max Scherzer got fined for the coin flip moment 💀

FULL Scherzer podcast out now on YouTube! pic.twitter.com/4pFkFy3pgc
— Blue Jays Today (@TodayJays) March 16, 2026

In May of last season Scherzer was dealing with an injury and was sitting in the dugout watching the Blue Jays play the Cleveland Guardians. Chris Bassitt was pitching for Toronto and the strike zone, as called by home plate umpire CB Bucknor that night, was, well questionable.

Turns out he wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Behind home plate for the Guardians was catcher Austn Hedges, who was teammates with Scherzer in Texas when the Rangers won the 2023 World Series. Sometimes, you don’t need to talk to communicate with one another during a game.

“We’re really good friends,” Scherzer said. “So, I’m looking over at Hedgy and, you know, he’s laughing like no one knew where the strike zone was on both sides. So, the game was very inconsistent.”

Max Scherzer was mocking home plate umpire CB Bucknor, suggesting that he was flipping a coin to make his calls

(via @Sportsnet) pic.twitter.com/tkp1D2neDj
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 3, 2025

The coin flip came out of that silent interaction between former teammates. Scherzer said the first time he did it, it was directed toward Hedges, who got a chuckle out of it. He did it again, and …

“Of course, it got on TV,” Scherzer said.

Scherzer shared that he was fined by Major League Baseball for the gesture. He also said that he apologized to Bucknor the next day, saying he wasn’t trying to show up the veteran umpire.

“You know when you get caught doing something bad you gotta atone for it, so I told CB I was sorry and then I wrote a check to say I’m sorry as well,” he said.

Scherzer has already made two spring training starts and is pitching more like its August than March. In two starts he has thrown 8.2 inning and hasn’t allowed a run. He’s given up two hits and three walks against six strikeouts. He’s also thrown more than 50 pitches in each start, a high load for a pitcher who didn’t join spring training until midway through camp.