The righty looked as good as you could hope for in his Grapefruit League outing on Saturday.
The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0 on Saturday as part of Grapefruit League action.
While the win is nice, especially considering multiple offensive pieces are away from the team for the World Baseball Classic, the real story of the day was the spring debut of Max Scherzer, who was officially signed earlier this week to a one-year deal.
The future Hall of Famer went four nearly perfect innings, giving up no runs and no hits. He walked one and struck out one, hitting nearly 96 mph on his fastball, per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com:
Scherzer has a $3 million base salary and could make up to $13 million in incentives. Jon Heyman reports he has a full no-trade clause.
About Scherzer
A future Hall of Famer, Scherzer is an 18-year veteran. He's played for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, Dodgers, New York Mets, Texas Rangers and Blue Jays, going 221-117 in his career. A three-time Cy Young winner, Scherzer is also a two-time World Series champion (Nationals, 2019, Rangers, 2023). He led baseball in strikeouts for three straight years from 2016-2018 and is also an eight-time All-Star.
Scherzer was injured much of the 2025 regular season, only making 17 starts and pitching to a disappointing 5.19 ERA with the Jays. He did perform well in the playoffs, winning a game in the American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners and pitching valiantly in Game 7 of the World Series.
The Blue Jays were beaten by the Los Angeles Dodgers in that seventh game. Clearly returning to the Blue Jays was appealing given how close the team was to a title and how tight-knit the clubhouse was.
Toronto Blue Jays staring pitcher Max Scherzer (31) during the game against the Philadelphia Phillies at BayCare Ballpark. Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn ImagesUsage
It's unclear how the Blue Jays will handle all the dynamics of the pitching staff at this point. Kevin Gausman, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber, Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce are the scheduled five-man rotation when everyone is healthy. However, Bieber is not at the moment.
Is he more hurt than we suspect, necessitating the need for Scherzer? Are the Blue Jays going to push Jose Berrios to the bullpen along with Eric Lauer, giving them two long men in the 'pen? Are they planning on trading one of Berrios and Lauer to get a more one-inning leverage reliever type?
We know that the Jays are going to slow ramp Yesavage, so do they need both those pitchers to take his place if they elect to slow play him in the season as well?
Could they go with a six-man rotation? All those things need to be answered, but this much is clear, Scherzer looked great on Saturday.
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