Former Texas Rangers World Series Star Seeks Second Opinion on Injured Hand

The Texas Rangers recently let one of their starting pitchers walk in free agency, and he is now facing another injury setback for an AL East team.

Sep 14, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Max Scherzer (31) pitches to the Seattle Mariners during the first inning at T-Mobile Park. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers have a relatively new-look starting pitcher rotation for the 2025 season compared to last year, with two rookies entering the mix, and veteran Max Scherzer moving on to the Toronto Blue Jays.

The July 2023 trade for Scherzer was an intriguing one, as the New York Mets sent a lump sum of $35.5 million to the Rangers to help cover part of his contract, and in return received infield prospect Luisangel Acuña. He made the Mets' opening-day roster this year.

Scherzer struggled to gain his footing with Texas, but in the half-season he played after the 2023 trade, he did show signs of his old self.

In eight starts he had a 3.20 ERA, 0.956 WHIP, 53 strikeouts to 15 walks, and a 4-2 record with 45.0 innings pitched.

However, 2024 would not be as kind to him, as he would only get nine starts across a full season of being on the roster, where he put up a 3.95 ERA, 1.154 WHIP, 40 strikeouts to 10 walks, and a 2-4 record with 43.1 innings pitched.

His starts became less and less impressive, and due to various injuries, he would end up on the injured list multiple times. His success with the Mets was impressive until the first half of the 2023 season, and this was the case with the Rangers as well, showing one good half season before flat out falling apart the next year.

The injury setbacks he had would ultimately lead to Texas letting him walk during this past offseason, and he chose to sign with the Blue Jays who needed some help in the pitching department. Bringing in a veteran to help mentor their team and give them some valuable innings seemed like a reasonable expectation, but it went sideways after only 45 pitches on Saturday.

The Blue Jays recently announced that after leaving his first game, Scherzer would be placed on the 15-day Injured List, and as a follow-up, Keegan Matheson of MLB.com reported that the veteran will be meeting with a hand specialist on Monday.

It seems the Rangers may have ultimately made the right decision in letting Scherzer walk in favor of letting their younger pitchers get running time.

With Jack Leiter having a strong first performance of 2025 against the Boston Red Sox, hopefully they will be able to get things back on track after a tough 2024 season.

As for Scherzer, the injury is an unfortunate setback to what could have been a solid season, and hopefully he is able to return from it in the near future after the consult.