The 2024-2025 MLB offseason is nearing its end, with Spring Training camps set to open in just 15 days. While most free agents have found new teams and contracts, a few notable names remain unsigned, particularly among pitchers. Key moves include Corbin Burnes joining the Arizona Diamondbacks, Max Fried signing with the New York Yankees, and Roki Sasaki heading to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Among this offseason’s free agent pitchers, none boasts a more accomplished career than Max Scherzer—except for one possible exception. The future Hall of Famer, now 40, faced a challenging 2024 season with the Texas Rangers due to injuries, limiting him to just 43 1/3 innings, the lowest total of his 17-year career. That includes his 56-inning rookie season in 2008 with Arizona and the shortened 2020 COVID season when he pitched 67 1/3 innings.
Scherzer has logged 2,878 career innings—more than any pitcher who debuted after 2000, except for his former Tigers teammate, Justin Verlander. Verlander, also a free agent this offseason, has since signed with the San Francisco Giants.
Scherzer: ‘Still Believe I Can Pitch at a High Level’
Max Scherzer is determined to make a comeback in 2025, insisting he can return to form—and the New York Yankees may share that belief.
“I still believe I can pitch at a high level. There’s nothing stopping me from doing that,” Scherzer said late last season. His year was cut short due to a hamstring strain, compounded by nerve issues and recovery from back surgery that sidelined him for much of the season.
To prepare for his return, Scherzer has been training at Cressey Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. During a recent “pro day” at the facility, he threw a bullpen session in front of scouts from multiple MLB teams, including the Yankees. According to Mets beat reporter Pat Ragazzo of SI.com, the scouts “liked what they saw.”
Alongside the Yankees, representatives from the Mets, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, and Chicago Cubs were in attendance to evaluate Scherzer’s readiness for a potential big-league return.
Scherzer Likely to Seek a 8-Figure Contract
What might Max Scherzer cost a team in 2025? Before the 2022 season, the then-37-year-old signed a three-year, $130 million deal with the Mets. By mid-2023, the Mets, looking to cut payroll, traded Scherzer to the Texas Rangers, covering about $31 million of his $43.3 million salary for 2024.
Now, no team—including the Yankees—is likely to pay Scherzer anything close to $30 million. Using Justin Verlander’s one-year, $15 million deal with the Giants as a reference point, Scherzer’s injury history would likely bring his price into the low eight figures on a one-year deal.
Would he be worth it? That remains to be seen until Scherzer takes the mound again, whether at Yankee Stadium or elsewhere. What is certain is that any team signing him would be acquiring a future Hall of Famer and three-time Cy Young Award winner. Scherzer ranks 11th on the all-time strikeouts list with 3,407, boasts a career ERA of 3.16 (second-best among active pitchers with at least 2,000 innings), and leads all pitchers with at least 2,000 innings in strikeouts per nine innings, at an impressive 10.7.