Sources – Blue Jays when deal with free agent Max Scherzer

Right-hander Max Scherzer and Toronto Blue Jays agree on a one-year contract of $ 15.5 million, sources of ESPN told on Thursday and united the future Hall of Famer with a Toronto team trying to save the winter after missing on high-profile freedom persecution.

The 40-year-old Scherzer, one of the best throwers of his generation and a future first-voting room Hall of Famer, comes from an injured-plague season with Texas Rangers, where he started only nine starts and went 2-4 with one 3.95 ERA. He did not start his first start before June 23, after surgery during the high season to repair a herniated disk in the back. Then he missed all August with shoulder fatigue and returned to get a start in September before a hamstring injury ended his season.

Toronto will nevertheless Slot Scherzer into his rotation, pending 2024.

Blue Jays were aimed at signing several nine-digit players this winter who went after Outfielder Juan Soto and Starters Corbin Burnes and Max Fried. Each chose to sign elsewhere, like Roki Sasaki, the 23-year-old Japanese star, now No. 1 on Kiley McDaniel’s Top 100 Prospect List for ESPN. Toronto struck a five-year-old, $ 92.5 million deal with Outfielder Anthony Santander to strengthen his outfield, and in Scherzer it adds a veteran whose experience after the season is to help if Blue Jays can navigate the American League East Gauntlet.

When a durable workhorse that started 30-Plus starts each season from 2009 to 2018, Scherzer has now missed significant time each of the last three seasons, making 23 start in 2022 while missing time with an oblique load and Makes 27 start in 2023 due to a strained shoulder and back spasms.

While Scherzer’s Fastball took a step back last year, he is practicing a five-pitch-arsenal and will rely on control that has been a hallmark of his entire 17-year-old career. His strike frequency fell to 22.6%last year, down from 28%, and was good during his seasons 2021-22 when he was over 30%. He allowed a .724 ops, higher than the MLB average of .711.

Scherzer was a free agent for the third time in his career. At the forefront of the 2015 season, he accepted a seven-year contract of $ 210 million with Washington Nationals, which turned out to be one of the best signings ever for a free agent jug. Scherzer won the second and third Cy Young Awards in his career, finished in the top three in three other seasons and helped the Nationals win the World Series in 2019, where he went 3-0 with a 2.40 ERA, autumn season and starting games 7 in the world series as you throw yourself through a neck injury.

He was traded at Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021 in the last year of this contract and then signed a three-year-old, $ 130 million deal with the New York Mets, the highest annual average value for a player at that time (matched a year later by Justin Verlander and then surpassed by Shohei Ohtani in 2024). Mets played playoffs the first year when Scherzer sent a 2.23 ERA, but he was traded to Rangers in 2023 – and helped them to a World Series title, although injuries limited him to only 9.2 laps in three postal season starts (he Did Pitch Three Scoreless Innings in his One World Series start).

The eight-time All-Star is 216-112 in his career with the three Cy Young Awards and 75.4 war. Among active pitchers, only Verlander has several wins, and only Verlander and Clayton Kershaw have a higher war.

The New York Post first reported the mention between Scherzer and Blue Jays.

Espns David Schoenfield contributed to this report.