Max Scherzer: Dead arm was result of Dodgers’ pitch count

Max Scherzer made his first media appearance as a member of the New York Mets on a conference call via Zoom on Wednesday. He was joined by his agent Scott Boras in Texas, where he has been one of eight players representing the union in negotiations with owners in the last few hours before the league’s collective bargaining agreement expired Wednesday night. Mets owner Steve Cohen and general manager Billy Eppler represented their new club, which currently has no manager.

All of them were full of compliments, as is always the case at these introductory press conferences. The Mets acquired a future Hall of Famer to place alongside Jacob deGrom in their starting rotation. Scherzer was guaranteed $ 130 million over three seasons – the highest average annual value for a player in major league history – after he turned 37. He will show up for spring training minutes from his home in Jupiter, Florida, allowing him to spend more time with his family. Smiles everywhere.

Scherzer’s last media appearance as Dodger was not so lighthearted. It happened in front of dugout away at Truist Park hours before Game 6 of the National League Championship Series. He explained why he wouldn’t make his scheduled outing that night against the Atlanta Braves to keep the Dodgers season alive. The day before, he informed the Dodgers that he would not be able to do so. He told them that his arm was very weak after a heavy workload for the previous 11 days. Instead, Walker Buehler opened. The Dodgers’ hopes of winning the World Series were dashed that night.

At the end of Wednesday’s virtual meeting with reporters, Scherzer addressed the end of his brief career with the Dodgers. He explained that he told the Dodgers that he felt confident that he could pull off a greater workload in the postseason because he successfully handled the load he faced during the Washington Nationals’ run in the 2019 World Series. So he was willing. to pitch in relief to close Game 5 of the NL Division Series against the San Francisco Giants three days after pitching seven innings in Game 3.

Three days later, he was out of power in 4 1/3 innings in Game 2 of the NLCS. He was scheduled to start six days later in Game 6, but his arm never recovered. He was acquired from the Nationals in July at the time and decided he couldn’t deliver. He said he was puzzled. On reflection, he believes the Dodgers’ pitching plan during the regular season led to its disappointing finale.

“We made the decision to consistently give extra days and watch our pitch count for the postseason,” Scherzer said. “I just feel like that lowered my ability, so when I tried to do the 2019 formula of being able to shoot from the pen, my arm wasn’t able to respond because it was coming from a lower pitch count. That’s why I didn’t get injured, but I was definitely committed trying to execute what I did in 2019. “

A Dodgers official said the team was unaware of Scherzer’s theory until he told reporters. The club expressed interest in re-signing him, but were unwilling to offer a three-year guarantee. Ultimately, the Dodgers were nowhere close to it, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Scherzer said the Nationals consistently allowed him to pitch 100 to 110 pitches every five days in 2019, allowing him to be sufficiently prepared for a tough postseason.

He didn’t mention that he was now two years older or that he had been dealing with bothersome leg injuries all season. The ailments were enough for Scherzer to tell the Nationals that he would accept a trade only to a contending team on the West Coast because he thought warmer weather would be better for his body. Ultimately, the decision fell between the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres.

Scherzer, like every other Major League player, was also transitioning from a 60-game season shortened by the pandemic to a full 162-game season.

Scherzer made 11 regular-season starts as a Dodger, posting a 1.98 ERA with 89 strikeouts and eight walks. He threw 109 pitches over seven innings in his debut before a rain-shortened 3 1/3 inning outing. He then averaged 96.3 pitches per game in his last nine outings, including one in which he was limited to 76 pitches due to a minor hamstring injury. He recorded more than 100 pitches five times.

He pitched to the seventh inning in five outings and to the eighth three times. They probably would have given him the green light to pitch all the way in his last two outings, but they gave him 10 runs in 10 1/3 innings. Those performances could have cost him the Cy Young Award.

In the end, he made seven starts with five days off and four with four days off. In all, he averaged 94 pitches in 30 starts with the Nationals and Dodgers. He then pitched 296 in 16 2/3 innings in four postseason games in a span of 12 days.

“This was the first time that I came across something like that, where I really thought I could do something, and I couldn’t. It took me time to find out what had happened. I was wondering what happened? What was the difference? Why was I not able to execute? “

In 2019, he missed nearly a month with a back injury before rejoining the Nationals in late August for seven home stretch starts. He pitched on five days off three times and on four days off three times. He pitched into the seventh inning once. His pitching average was 94. Overall, he averaged 103 pitches in 27 starts and made at least 110 pitches in seven games. It didn’t hit that mark once in 2021.

In the playoffs In 2019, Scherzer made a one-inning relief appearance – in Game 2 of the NLDS against the Dodgers. That came three days after throwing 77 pitches in five innings in the wild-card game and three days before throwing 109 pitches through seven innings in Game 4. His last three appearances in the playoffs they were all with at least four days off. He started Game 1 of the World Series and his second outing was delayed to Game 7.

The numbers indicate that his workload was slightly higher in 2019 than in 2021 when he was healthy, but he also racked up fewer entries. Scherzer believes that is why he was unable to perform in October.

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