Max Scherzer, like so many others who play, watch, or care about Major League Baseball, is ready to go.
Scherzer expounded on this idea in an interview with The Athletic, posted on Monday. As a member of the Players Association’s executive subcommittee, the new Mets’ pitcher is itching to get started but also is as familiar as anyone with the reasons why things are being held up.
“The business will take care of itself,” Scherzer said in the interview. “Right now, seeing how the business of the game has transpired, us as players, we recognize what we’re trying to do here to make the game itself better. Whatever happens, happens. But we’re ready to go whenever we do come to an agreement.”
In the ongoing struggle between the players and the league’s owners, the latter has done nothing to make anyone believe that the lockout is going to end soon. Other than trying to get the feds involved, the MLB side of the negotiating table has basically done nothing, and now they’re claiming to be out of ideas.
On Friday, after the players’ side rejected the idea of federal mediation, Scherzer tweeted, “We want a system where threshold and penalties don’t function as caps, allows younger players to realize more of their market value, makes service time manipulation a thing of the past, and eliminate tanking as a winning strategy.”
He and the players have been clear and concise about their demands. It’s the suits who don’t want to bargain in good faith. Part of the players’ statement from the federal mediator fallout urged the league to stop ducking them and actually sit down for a face-to-face meeting instead of outsourcing things to an unnecessary government official.
“The clearest path to a fair and timely agreement is to get back to the table,” read the statement. “Players stand ready to negotiate.”
As far as preparing for a season that he well knows could be delayed, the 37-year-old was emphatic about his adherence to a throwing routine that he’s been using since he was 23. He also came to grips with the fact that he can’t squat anymore after several “tweaks” in his body that he noticed after trying to squat heavy amounts of weight.
An overwhelming portion of Scherzer’s comments in The Athletic touched on the idea that he knows his body on an obsessive level at this point. The righty had to miss a start in last year’s National League Championship Series after “overcooking” his arm, which ironically came when the Dodgers altered his routine to give him more rest, not less.
The uncertainty of the coming season could be hellish for pitchers, creating what would essentially be a third consecutive unconventional year, given that ramping back up to their normal workload in 2021 after just 60 games in 2020 was unprecedented.
“Things can get sideways with your arm really fast this year, and if they do, understand you’ve got to pull the parachute and get out of there; 2021 was not the year to try to be a hero,” Scherzer said. “You really have to be cautious with your arm, and not only that, (but) be cautious in 2022 as you continue to build back up.”
A maniacal workout fiend — the man describes himself as having a “no pain, no gain” type of attitude toward his offseason conditioning — Scherzer will surely show up game ready on the first day of spring training. Whether that’s in a matter of weeks or a matter of months is the dilemma.
