The Mets and Max Scherzer have agreed to a three-year, $130 million contract, with Andy Martino confirming the deal is done and Jon Heyman having provided the details on the contract. Martino notes that the deal has an opt out after two years, and Joel Sherman adds that it includes a full no-trade clause.
The 37-year-old Scherzer is coming off a very good season in which he had a 2.46 ERA in 179.1 innings for the Nationals and Dodgers and finished third in National League Cy Young voting.
A three-time Cy Young winner, Scherzer came up with the Diamondbacks, making his major league debut in 2008. Arizona traded him to the Tigers in the same three-team trade that sent Curtis Granderson to the Yankees in 2009, and Scherzer spent five years with the Tigers before hitting free agency and signing with the Nationals ahead of the 2015 season. This year, the Nationals traded him to the Dodgers at the trade deadline.
Over the course of his major league career, Scherzer has a 3.16 ERA, but he’s been particularly dominant since the start of the 2013 season, having racked up a 2.82 ERA from that point onward.
The move significantly bolsters the Mets’ rotation, as the team can slot Scherzer in behind Jacob deGrom—one of the few pitchers who is better than Scherzer—at the top of their rotation moving forward.