Max Scherzer expects 'crazy, wild atmosphere' for his Mets debut in Washington
Mets starting pitcher Max Scherzer walks off the field after a baseball workout at Nationals Park, Wednesday, April 6, 2022, in Washington. Credit: AP/Alex Brandon
WASHINGTON — This used to be home for Max Scherzer, but most of the evidence is gone.
His old locker in the Nationals’ clubhouse, a spacious spot befitting his status, now is assigned to Joe Ross but is mostly empty because Ross is injured and away from the team. The eerie poster of a close-up of his eyes — one brown and one blue, peering into the stadium from the second deck in rightfield, like a Nationals Park version of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg — has been removed. And although Scherzer remains a presence in the Nationals’ Opening Week advertising, he appears in the Mets’ orange and blue, serious-faced alongside a wide-smiling Juan Soto, the new default face of the franchise.
This is where Scherzer ascended from really good pitcher to perennial All-Star and Cy Young Award candidate and maybe best pitcher of his generation, where he was worth every penny of the seven-year, $210 million contract he signed before the 2015 season, where he became a World Series champion in 2019.
And now, for the first time since being traded to the Dodgers last July, he is back. Scherzer’s Mets debut will come Friday night against the Nationals, of all teams, at Nationals Park, of all places.
“It’s going to be a crazy, wild atmosphere,” Scherzer said Thursday before the Mets’ season opener. “This was going to happen at some point. It was weird when I had that Dodgers uniform on, too. You get used to it. You get used to playing for another team. You go out there and just compete and have fun.”
Scherzer and the Mets — and the Nationals, for that matter — locked in their Friday plans on Thursday afternoon when he completed a series of fielding drills. That happened in leftfield, because a tarp covered the infield on a rainy day, but it was good enough. It was the last test before he received the OK from the team medical staff to pitch.
Despite dealing with a sore right hamstring in recent days, Scherzer is ready to give it a try.
“I did it well enough that they felt comfortable enough with the pace I was doing it at,” he said. “So I’m good to go.”
Nobody is sure what a not-quite-perfectly-healthy Scherzer will provide.
“You just gotta get in game and manage the game,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many pitches I’m going to throw. You manage what you got, give it everything that you got and go out there and compete and try to win.”
His limitations won’t take away from the poetry or the fun of the goings-on.
The Nationals provided a dose of nostalgia by making Scherzer the first Mets player to be introduced during Opening Day ceremonies and playing a tribute video for him Thursday night. He tipped his cap to the cheering crowd upon taking his spot on the third-base line.
Soto was enthused about the prospect of facing Scherzer for the first time in a non-spring training setting. They had Scherzer-instigated banter for years when they played for the same team about what such a showdown might look like if they didn’t play for the same team, and now that is reality.
Scherzer — with whom he shares an agent, Scott Boras — has been a mentor, Soto said, someone who would offer wise words about baseball on the field and life off of it, even though one is a pitcher and one is a hitter.
“I know he don’t give me any of his special things,” Soto said, referring to Scherzer’s ardent protection of anything that might be a competitive advantage. “But I think it’s going to be fun. He’s going to try to strike me out, and I will try my best to don’t strike out, because I know he wants that really bad.”
Said Scherzer, informed of Soto’s intention to try to not strike out: “He does a good job of that.”
Scherzer tried not to think much about how the fans might receive him Friday — “However they want,” he said — but if the remaining evidence that this once was his home is any indication, their reaction will be warm.
Behind section 217, in the cushy suite section of the ballpark, Scherzer is featured prominently in the glass display cases with artifacts from the Nationals’ title run: his game-worn jersey, his name on the Game 7 lineup card, his face in a photo of that immediate celebration — and, of course, the trophy he had a hand in winning.
“There’s a lot of good memories here, and there always will be good memories here,” he said. “But nothing lasts forever. As my baseball journey goes on, I’m here in New York and excited about what the future holds.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
