The Texas Rangers acquired SP Max Scherzer prior to the 2023 MLB trade deadline from the New York Mets. Despite receiving interest from other teams, Texas ultimately landed the veteran starting pitcher. Scherzer recently made a brutally honest admission about the Mets-Rangers trade, per Foul Territory on Twitter.
“I didn't think I was getting traded,” Scherzer said. “Maybe for a hot minute I did… then I was like, ‘no, it's not going to happen.' Then, there was a couple days before the deadline, all of the sudden there was a couple guys across the league who were reaching out to me talking about, ‘hey, would you… waive your no-trade clause for us?'”
Scherzer added that when teams began asking him about his no-trade clause, that's when he realized a deal may actually come to fruition. Sure enough, he was dealt to the Rangers as the Mets pulled the plug on their disappointing 2023 season.
Max Scherzer with the Rangers
Scherzer is now a member of a first place Rangers ball club. Texas signed Jacob deGrom during the offseason but the superstar pitcher suffered an injury earlier during the '23 campaign and will miss the remainder of the season. Bringing in Scherzer provides Texas with a proven big league ace with playoff experience.
Scherzer has impressed during his tenure with Texas so far, sporting a 2.77 ERA across two starts. He's also gone 2-0 in those outings. It appears that Scherzer is back on track after initially posting a 4.01 ERA with the Mets.
Although Max Scherzer didn't believe he was getting traded, he's likely not going to complain about the move given his improved performance and potential for playoff baseball.