After missing a month due to an oblique injury that he suffered while pitching against the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets ace Max Scherzer is getting closer and closer to making his return to the mound.
The right-hander is 5-1 with a 2.54 ERA in his first eight starts as a member of the Mets.
The Mets signed the 37-year-old veteran to a three-year, $130 million contract just a few days prior to the MLB lockout.
But Scherzer appears to be making his way back and getting closer each day.
Mets insider Deesha Thosar tweeted about the team’s pitching plans for their weekend series against the Miami Marlins and how Scherzer might factor into that.
Mets haven't ruled out Max Scherzer starting on Sunday against the Marlins.
Taijuan Walker will take the hill for the series opener on Friday in Miami, followed by Chris Bassitt on Saturday.
— Deesha (@DeeshaThosar) June 22, 2022
Mad Max Coming Back Soon
Getting Scherzer back would be huge for the Mets.
Despite them continuing to win ballgames and remaining at the top of the NL East, the rotation has struggled just a bit.
But if Scherzer returns on Sunday, the Mets will have him and Chris Bassitt back-to-back for the final two games of the series.
And the Mets probably aren’t too far off from getting Jacob deGrom back either.
When Scherzer returns, the Mets rotation should return to its rightful state as one of the best in all of baseball.
He was quite effective before he went down with the oblique injury and had picked up the slack left by deGrom’s absence.
He’ll certainly be extra motivated to go out and dominate when he does in fact return.
But it would be big for the Mets to get him back as early as Sunday.
As Thosar mentions, it’s not confirmed, but the Mets are not ruling it out.
We’ll see what next steps are.
