When Mets ace Max Scherzer was ejected from his April 19 start against the Dodgers, he became the highest-profile and most accomplished pitcher to be officially reprimanded for a “sticky stuff” infraction. Scherzer was adamant that he did not cheat in the aftermath, though ultimately chose not to appeal his 10-game suspension.
On Wednesday, Scherzer’s agent, Scott Boras, explained why.
As Boras put it to Sports Illustrated‘s Tom Verducci, Scherzer opted against an appeal because he considered it a “fruitless” effort. Boras also said that Scherzer had “no intent to cheat,” and pointed to what he perceives as cloudiness regarding the specific parameters for what constitutes “too sticky.”
“The fact of the matter is, I still don’t know sticky from sticky-sticky, so I can advise my pitchers,” Boras told Verducci. “They’re all coming to me and asking, ‘What do I do?’
“You’ve got [pitchers] in cars with no speedometers. They’re riding with the flow of traffic, but they don’t know how fast they are going.”
During the April 19 outing, Scherzer had his hand and glove inspected by umpires twice before he was ejected. The right-hander pleaded his case with first base umpire Phil Cuzzi, insisting that the substance that was detected by umpires was merely rosin and sweat.
In a statement, MLB said that umpires checked Scherzer’s hand following a second warning, and that his hand was “even more glossy and sticky” than before the check, and that the stickiness level was “inconsistent with the use of rosin and/or sweat alone.”
Scherzer is eligible to return from his suspension on May 1.
