BALTIMORE — As the rain poured with no signs of abating Tuesday afternoon and the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles discussed whether to postpone the night’s game, Max Scherzer made one demand of John Schneider.
“It was,” the manager recalled, “‘make sure you call me at this time when you know, so I can either turn it on or turn it off.”
The day’s relentless downpour meant Scherzer turned his legendary intensity off, flipping back on Wednesday in the first half of a split doubleheader, when not even the future Hall of Famer could prevent his team’s inevitable elimination from the wild-card chase in a 4-2 defeat.
Loss No. 81 was in many ways a microcosm of this star-crossed season for the defending American League champions, failing to execute on a delayed double steal that allowed the Orioles to swipe a run in the second while going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position before finally breaking through on Brandon Valenzuela’s RBI single in the sixth, finishing 1-for-14 overall.
Things didn’t get much better during the nightcap in another 4-2 setback, and they headed home for a three-game set against the Cincinnati Reds at 77-82.
An offence that began the day tied for 28th in runs scored has been a season-long issue while uneven defensive play has combined with a relentless stream of pitching injuries to prevent the Blue Jays from winning more than four games in a row.
“We showed last year we can play all the way into the World Series and obviously this year we're not going to the playoffs,” said Scherzer. “We didn't accomplish our goals. It's frustrating, whatever words you want to say are fair to say. I don't need to say any more to it.”
Still, a 17-11 August and a 5-3 start to September briefly pushed them above .500 and gave them possession of the third wild-card spot, but they’re 4-9 since, ending their hopes of capitalizing on an overwhelmingly mid American League to sneak into the playoffs.
“There are missed opportunities from everyone, myself, the staff, everyone,” said Schneider. “It's not one person, one person that's not here, one person that still is here. It's been some unfortunate breaks, some unfortunate injuries, but at the end of the day, we didn't play as well as we were capable of playing. It's frustrating to get to this point, obviously, and I think all of us, you take accountability for it, you look yourself in the mirror, we've done that before and you say, how can we change this going forward?”
Added Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who returned from lower back tightness to double in the opener before sitting in the evening contest: “Everybody knows that we went through a lot this year, a lot of injuries. That's not an excuse for myself or for the rest of the guys. We did all we could. Second of all, I'm taking big responsibility on this year. I knew I've got to get better. I've got to obviously put up better numbers to help the team win. But it is what it is. Just go to the off-season and keep working hard, prepare myself again and be ready for next year.”
George Springer is one of the club’s 28 players to hit the injured list during the season after fracturing his left big toe April 11 against Minnesota, missing 15 games and then was hit by a pitch on the same spot in his fourth game back after returning.
The constant roster churn created by 34 injured-list stints and the ongoing need for fresh arms, along with the inevitable adjustments around the evolving personnel, is why Springer replied, “I want to say good” when asked how he feels he handled adversity.
“There was a lot that could have gone even more wrong,” he continued. “Obviously, there are some guys that went down early; there are the guys that stepped up in a big way. And I think the season could have gone off the rails a lot earlier. It could have gotten squirrelly for us a little bit. Guys didn't quit. We kept battling all the way up until today. Just unfortunate.”
A key part of the August surge, the 42-year-old Scherzer, who is aiming to pitch on short rest in Sunday’s season finale because “I want to pitch in front of Toronto again,” struck out the side around a walk in the first, was bled for two runs in the second, gave up a two-run shot to surging slugger Pete Alonso in the fifth and ended up allowing four runs in five frames with seven punchouts.
Now at 3,550 career strikeouts, Scherzer needs five more to pass Justin Verlander’s 3,554 for eighth all-time, although the Detroit Tigers righty pitches Saturday, adding impetus for another go in the finale.
If it was his last go for the Blue Jays, the pending free agent Scherzer has left a remarkable impact on the franchise, his insights contributing to the club’s reset ahead of the 2025 season while helping pitch the team back to the World Series for the first time since 1993, an epic outing in Game 4 of the ALCS versus the Seattle Mariners adding to his lore.
Schneider pointed to Scherzer’s humour and competitiveness, among other attributes, helping everyone around the club.
“He's been awesome. It's been really cool to watch him compete and get to know him and the many things that make him tick. He's kind of one-of-one," Schneider said.
There’s little doubt there, and whether this season is not only it for Scherzer and the Blue Jays, but his career, too, is up in the air.
“I'll probably say something here in the next couple of days,” he said after the game, although he may also take his time with his decision. Given his age and the toll of 19 big-league seasons on his body, a creative accommodation in which he starts the season late – something the looming lockout might force anyway – or is counted on for shorter portions of the season might make sense for him, especially around his familiar responsibilities.
The $3 million contract he signed in the spring with $1 million in incentives every 10 innings starting at 65 – at 77.2 innings he crossed the second threshold Wednesday to push his incentive total to $2 million – demonstrates how teams are willing to make unique accommodations.
“We are a glaring example of you can never have enough pitching and you can never have enough starting pitching, just because of the ebbs and flows of the season,” said Schneider. “Really good teams are doing that now, where I don't want to say you're baking in some injuries or some time off, but you're banking on not 200 innings, maybe a hundred. There definitely could be a pathway for that.”
Schneider added that after last season, he “was a little bit more sure that he would” return but now, “I don't know. I think it's a 50-50 call right now.”
And how would he feel about a return engagement with Scherzer?
“Open door,” Schneider replied. “Not my call, but I would love to have him around.”
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