On this date, exactly 10 years ago, the Washington Nationals officially announced the acquisition of one of their greatest players in franchise history, Max Scherzer. Despite the deal being announced a few days earlier, the club waited until January 21st, 2015 to make it official and introduce Scherzer in a press conference.
It is a pretty rare occurrence in professional sports that a long-term deal for a very high dollar amount ever looks great in hindsight, with many deals aging poorly over the years as guys get older and father time catches up, but this was not one of those times. While signing him to a 7-year deal worth $210 million, it's almost fair to wonder if the Nationals even got a bit of a bargain in signing Scherzer to this deal.
Over the course of his 7 seasons in the Nation's Capital, Max accumulated a 2.80 ERA with a 0.962 WHIP to go along with a 92-47 record and accounting for 38.9 bWAR. He made 6 All-Star teams in his 7 years with the Nationals, won 2 NL Cy Young Awards, threw 2 no-hitters in the same season, and even had a 20 strikeout game, and once he retires he should be a shoe-in for Cooperstown and the first ever Washington National to have the Curly W on his plaque.
Max came to DC with the ultimate goal of winning a World Series ring, and in the 5th year of his contract, he helped make that dream come true. After pairing with Stephen Strasburg, Gio González, Jordan Zimmermann, Doug Fister, and Tanner Roark in his early years, he would form an unstoppable trio with Strasburg and Patrick Corbin in the 2019 season to give the club 3 aces atop the rotation, and help guide the Nationals to their 1st World Series Championship in franchise history.
Besides this, Scherzer had many other memories that likely do not immediately come to mind, including the black eye game, nearly taking off his clothes on the mound during the height of the sticky stuff - complete with the staredown of Joe Girardi, and becoming the 1st pitcher in Nationals history to strikeout 300 hitters in a season.
He was an absolute joy to watch pitch every 5th day, and the easiest way to describe Scherzer is that he is absolutely built different. Whether it was yelling at managers trying to pull him that he was not going to come out of the game or getting angry with himself and cursing himself out halfway through his wind-up, he left us Nationals fans with a lifetime of memories, and it's hard to imagine that his contract could have gone much better at all.
Ultimately, in the years since leaving the Nationals after being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers along with Trea Turner for a package that included Josiah Gray and Keibert Ruiz, injuries and father time have sadly begun to catch up to him. As I identified yesterday, it is unclear what role Max will have for a club in 2025, but he should be at least given a 1-year deal to pitch in some capacity in his age 40 season.
What is your favorite Max Scherzer memory? As always, please let me know on X, @DCBerk.