Blue Jays are latest team to get burned by Max Scherzer's high price tag, injury woes

Stop us if you heard this one before. Max Scherzer is on the injured list.

Over the weekend, the Blue Jays confirmed Toronto's worst nightmare when they announced that Scherzer was headed to the shelf after he only went three innings in his start against the Orioles.

Injuries are nothing new for the 40-year-old Scherzer, who has missed time in each of the past two years due to injuries. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that's on the shelf.

But that still doesn't take away the sting for the Blue Jays. While the Blue Jays likely planned for Scherzer to miss some time this year due to injuries, they likely didn't expect it to happen so soon.

Scherzer first set antennas up in the spring when he was pulled from a spring training start with his thumb injury, which was intally reported to be done "out of an abudence of caution."

A couple days later, he added some more context to the injury, where he said that the injury impacted his ability to grip the ball and was flaring up around the 50-pitch mark.

While it seemed like the injury might impact his availability on Opening Day, he ended up throwing a successful rehab stint and was able to break camp with the team.

It only took 45 pitches for those plans to change. After three ineffective innings against the Orioles, Scherzer was pulled due to his thumb barking at him. Postgame, he said he's being extremely cautious because both of his previous injuries were caused by thumb discomfort.

“I was able to at least get through three and not blow up the bullpen, but after that third inning, I could just tell that we were in imminent danger," Scherzer said after the game. "If you keep pitching through this as the arm fatigues, this is going to go.”

“This is 100% related to the thumb,” he went on to say. “My shoulder, everything is compensating because of that thumb. The thumb is slightly better, but I still have discomfort in there. Even though I was able to grip the ball a little bit better today, I still have discomfort in my thumb. My arm is making adjustments because of that. That’s a recipe for disaster.”

"Imminent danger" and "recipe for disaster" are never words you want to hear out of any player's mouth — let alone one of your marquee fee agent acquisitions.

In 2023 and '24, Scherzer's injuries were the Rangers problems on the field but the Mets on the payroll, as New York paid all but $22.5 million of his salary after acquiring him at the 2023 trade deadline

In 2023, he missed the end of the regular season after suffering a teres major strain that was caused by his thumb issues, but he ended up returning for the postseason and helped Texas win the World Series. In 2024, he only managed to throw 43 1/3 innings because of a shoulder injury caused by discomfort in his thumb.

But the impact of his injury was a bit muted both times. In 2023, he returned to help the Rangers win that aforementioned World Series, which made 2024 a bit of house money. It also didn't hurt that the Mets were picking up a good portion of his contract.

Neither one of those things are in play for the Blue Jays. Not only are they coming off a disappointing season, but they offered Scherzer a one-year, $15.5 million contract in the offseason.

He's a future Hall of Famer and the Blue Jays signed him in the hopes that he had some magic left in his right arm, but that all becomes a moot point if his right thumb doesn't allow his arm to work the way it should.

The Blue Jays' rotation depth looked like a strength during the spring, but Scherzer's injury changes things. Easton Lucas got the call-up in Scherzer's space, but he's a journeyman. Yariel Rodríguez is another option, but he had a tough start to the season and could be a valuable weapon in the bullpen.

The Blue Jays swung big in acquiring Scherzer. But, as of now, it looks like a swing and a miss.