Why Max Scherzer takes unusual step of positioning Mets' outfielders
New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer at Citi Field on April 20, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Amid all the normal stuff, such as arriving at the ballpark four or five hours before first pitch and reviewing the opposing lineup with the starting catcher and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner and eating his customary pregame meal that he didn’t want to disclose publicly, Max Scherzer’s start-day routine includes a highly unusual meeting.
He sits down before the game with outfield coach Wayne Kirby and/or analyst Jack Bredeson to discuss where he wants his outfielders to play against each batter, taking an active role in a defensive alignment process in which pitchers typically do not have a significant voice. That is something Mets manager Buck Showalter said he has seen only a handful of times in his more than three decades around the majors.
Scherzer, intensely detailed, feels strongly about having input in this minutia, which he says helps him pitch better. And the Mets welcome it.
“He admits he’s a fly-ball pitcher, so we want to cross the T’s and dot the I’s and hopefully be there when that ball is hit in the air. That’s what we want to do,” Kirby said. “He understands what he’s going to do. It’s his game. We do what he needs us to do.”
Centerfielder Brandon Nimmo added: “Max has what he wants to do down. And it’s worked for a long time. So I have zero input for him on what I think is best.”
And Mark Canha, leftfielder: “If he tells me where to play, I’m going to do it. You can bet I’m going to do it.”
Defensive shifts sometimes rub pitchers the wrong way after the fact — especially in extreme situations, such as a grounder getting through a wide-open chunk of infield — and the Mets’ philosophy is to take a pitcher’s opinion into account if he cares a lot. Usually they don’t. Canha said pitchers generally aren’t confident enough to tweak their fielders’ positioning. Showalter said most don’t want the responsibility if it doesn’t work. Scherzer does — and has for a long time.
His outfield positioning began during his Detroit days, around when he won his first Cy Young Award in 2013. It started simply enough: He wanted to move his leftfielder when he was facing lefthanded hitters. He often would attack them on the outer portion of the strike zone, so they often would hit the ball to the opposite field. He wanted his leftfielder ready.
“As the years went on, I felt like I was right in my assessment of where the leftfielder needed to be playing, and it gradually evolved out of that to be able to understand where all three are playing,” Scherzer said. “By positioning the outfielders, I felt like I understood the hitter a little bit more. It was one more extra layer of intel on the hitter.”
When he showed up to spring training this year, his first with the Mets, he mentioned his desire to be involved to Kirby and Bredeson. The latter received a quiz: Where would he put the outfielders against the Mets’ hitters? Theirs was a lineup Scherzer knew well. He sought to use it to form an understanding of Bredeson’s and the Mets’ numbers-based approach.
Now they act as a three-man outfield positioning committee for Scherzer’s starts. The righthander seeks to balance the pure analytics with his baseball acumen — his baseball common sense — suggesting tweaks to the Mets’ norm based on his knowledge of or history with a batter, the plan against that particular lineup on that particular day or other subtleties.
“I say, ‘Hey, I feel like these are the pitches that I want to feature today. I think if I feature these pitches, the ball is going to end up here more likely than there,’ ” said Scherzer, who has a 2.92 ERA and 0.95 WHIP in six starts.
What the Mets do for Scherzer isn’t too different from what they do for other pitchers, but the margins matter. Even a step or two in one direction can be the difference between an out and an extra-base hit.
“He gets just a little bit more specific based on the situation,” Nimmo said. “He likes to switch things up — look at what guys do with runners in scoring position, with runners on first base, with nobody on.”
Canha said: “There will be certain things where normally I’m playing a guy in the gap, but oh, OK, there’s somebody on base. [Scherzer] thinks he’s going to try to pull here. I’m going to scoot over toward the line.”
Take a couple of members of the Cardinals, a team Scherzer faced last month and is scheduled to face again next week, as examples.
When Cardinals righthanded hitter Tyler O’Neill batted against Scherzer, Nimmo was shaded the other way, toward rightfield. Later in the game, when O’Neill stepped to the plate against Trevor May, Nimmo was more toward left.
“That was a Max thing,” Nimmo said. “Max has a certain way he wants to pitch him. And he thinks that the only damage that he can give up is to right, so he wants us to be there for that.”
Against Dylan Carlson, a switch hitter batting lefty, Nimmo initially was shifted toward rightfield. When Carlson fell into a two-strike count, a situation in which Scherzer knew he would shorten his swing and be comfortable serving the ball to leftfield, Nimmo moved that way to close that gap.
And on it goes, the Mets happy to make Scherzer happy.
“You don’t get three Cy Youngs for not paying attention to detail,” Kirby said. “He’s been in the game for a while. He knows how he wants his defense. He knows a little something. To his credit, he deserves that. If this is what you want, this is what you want.”
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.
