Washington Nationals: No Need To Panic About Max Scherzer’s Injury Yet

Even though Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer might miss his Opening Day start, there is no need to panic just yet

The Washington Nationals pitchers and catchers have only been in West Palm Beach for less than a week and there’s already some concern. In his first meeting with the media, Max Scherzer talked about how he just recently started throwing a baseball due to the injury to the knuckle on his right ring finger. It could mean his projected Opening Day start on April 3 might not happen:

Scherzer ended up making his last seven starts of the regular season with that knuckle injury last year and was excellent. As Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post tweeted out yesterday, the right-hander went 6-0 in those outings and racked up 57 strikeouts.

While it’s never a good thing to have an Opening Day start in jeopardy, there is no need to panic just yet. If injuries were going to happen, it’s better that they happen early in the season. That way everyone is as healthy for the stretch run as possible and you could make alternative plans before the season starts.

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In the two seasons since Scherzer arrived in Washington D.C., Scherzer has thrown a total of 908 pitches in the month of April. Last season, his 527 pitches thrown in 31.2 innings was the sixth most in all of baseball and the most in the National League (four starts of 100+ pitches).

Now, if you go back to the month of September when Scherzer pitched with the injury, he had 530 pitches (eighth in the National League) and four of his five starts were also over 100 pitches. When you look at that stat, it’s crazy how great Scherzer pitched with the stress fracture.

If Scherzer were to miss the start of the season, it wouldn’t signal panic for his year because that might allow him to be fresher towards the end of the regular season. Remember that teams can’t win a division in April, but they can lose it.

The only worry that Washington Nationals fans should have is how it might affect the other pitchers if Scherzer is out. In addition to Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Tanner Roark each threw over 500 pitches in April last year. Due to the unknown at closer right now, it wouldn’t surprise me if both of those pitchers got over that total this season.

Right now, the Washington Nationals should take their time with Scherzer and wait until he’s 100% ready, regardless of whether or not he makes the Opening Day start. Depending upon what else happens in Spring Training, Strasburg isn’t a bad alternative to make that start against the Miami Marlins on April 3.

Next: 2017 State Of NL East: Bullpen

With that being said, Scherzer’s absence would put more pressure on the bullpen if the other starters can’t go deep into games. There should be no panic about Scherzer’s injury just yet, but I don’t blame fans for having concern since the rehab has gone slower than people would’ve thought.