Max Scherzer

Bats R Throws R6'3" 208 lbBorn 1984 St. Louis, USADebut 2008Team TOR8x All-StarDraft 2003 R43 #1291 St. Louis Cardinals, Parkway Central HS (MO)Contract 1 y/$3M (26) 2026: $3,000,000

Awards: Cy Young Award x3, TSN All-Star x3, All-MLB Second Team, TSN Pitcher of the Year

Projections

Season	BF	K%	BB%	HR%	1B%	XBH%	PITCH+
2026	406	22.1	6.2	3.67	19.9	6.76	97.7
2027							97.7
2028							99.3

Projected rates are per plate appearance or batter faced; counting stats scale with projected playing time. Statcast measurements inform these projections as inputs and are reported as measurements, not projected.

Most similar through age 40

His ten closest age-40 comparables averaged 90 PITCH+ the next season; 7 of 10 played. Averages cover only the players who got a next season, which is why the played count matters.

#	Player	Through	PITCH+ then	Next season	Next PA / BF
1	Bronson Arroyo	2017	99.0	did not play
2	Andy Pettitte	2012	104.7	99.8	784
3	Charlie Morton	2024	100.4	87.2	654
4	Greg Maddux	2006	105.7	104.3	830
5	Curt Schilling	2007	100.5	did not play
6	Rich Hill	2020	108.1	99.2	661
7	Tom Glavine	2006	103.3	97.2	855
8	Derek Lowe	2013	102.6	did not play
9	Tom Gordon	2008	108.6	32.1	10
10	Tim Wakefield	2007	102.8	108.8	754

Batting

Year	Team	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	HIT+
2025	TOR	17	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2024	TEX	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2023	TEX	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2022	NYM	23	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2021	LAD	30	63	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	28	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	-114.7
2020	WSH	12	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2019	WSH	29	61	6	10	0	0	2	2	0	27	0.182	0.182	0.182	0.364	-18.0
2018	WSH	35	78	8	17	2	0	6	1	1	14	0.243	0.274	0.271	0.545	40.0
2017	WSH	31	72	4	10	0	1	5	0	4	16	0.161	0.212	0.210	0.422	4.5
2016	WSH	34	85	4	13	1	0	12	0	2	30	0.186	0.208	0.200	0.408	1.9
2015	WSH	34	77	4	15	0	0	0	0	2	23	0.217	0.239	0.217	0.457	15.8
2014	DET	33	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	-133.2
2013	DET	32	3	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0.333	0.333	0.667	1.000	167.7
2012	DET	32	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	-125.5
2011	DET	33	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	-124.7
2010	DET	31	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	-125.5
2009	ARI	31	61	4	12	2	0	3	0	3	17	0.226	0.268	0.264	0.532	33.1
2008	ARI	17	15	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	4	0.000	0.071	0.000	0.071	-97.1
Career		490	529	31	78	6	1	30	3	13	161	0.168	0.194	0.188	0.381	-8.0

Pitching

Year	Team	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	BF	HR	BB	SO	PITCH+
2027 proj									406				97.7
2026*									202				86.6	101.4	88.0
2025	TOR	5	5	5.19	17	17	0	85.0	358	19	23	82	91.1	99.7	90.8
2024	TEX	2	4	3.95	9	9	0	43.3	177	7	10	40	98.6	102.3	100.9
2023	TEX	13	6	3.77	27	27	0	152.7	621	28	45	174	107.2	99.0	106.1
2022	NYM	11	5	2.29	23	23	0	145.3	565	13	24	173	117.1	99.3	116.4
2021	LAD	15	4	2.46	30	30	0	179.3	693	23	36	236	121.5	100.0	121.5
2020	WSH	5	4	3.74	12	12	0	67.3	295	10	23	92	97.7	99.1	96.9
2019	WSH	11	7	2.92	27	27	0	172.3	693	18	33	243	117.2	100.4	117.6
2018	WSH	18	7	2.53	33	33	0	220.7	866	23	51	300	120.8	98.6	119.4
2017	WSH	16	6	2.51	31	31	0	200.7	780	22	55	268	123.7	98.6	122.3
2016	WSH	20	7	2.96	34	34	0	228.3	902	31	56	284	115.7	99.4	115.1
2015	WSH	14	12	2.79	33	33	0	228.7	899	27	34	276	118.2	100.6	118.8
2014	DET	18	5	3.15	33	33	0	220.3	904	18	63	252	106.0
2013	DET	21	3	2.90	32	32	0	214.3	836	18	56	240	119.1
2012	DET	16	7	3.74	32	32	0	187.7	787	23	60	231	101.2
2011	DET	15	9	4.43	33	33	0	195.0	833	29	56	174	94.2
2010	DET	12	11	3.50	31	31	0	195.7	800	20	70	184	103.4
2009	ARI	9	11	4.12	30	30	0	170.3	741	20	63	174	102.2
2008	ARI	0	4	3.05	16	7	0	56.0	237	5	21	66	112.7
Career		221	117	3.22	483	474	0	2963.0	11987	354	779	3489	110.7		110.5

Statcast

Year	PA	EV	LA	Barrel%	HardHit%	Whiff%	Chase%	xBA	xSLG	xwOBA	Sprint
2021	63	85.6	-4.6	0.0	22.9	35.8	24.5	0.072	0.098	0.079	21.0
2019	61	87.2	-7.5	0.0	20.6	36.0	34.7	0.152	0.188	0.147	24.4
2018	78	82.5	-1.2	1.9	16.4	24.1	32.3	0.190	0.250	0.216	25.5
2017	72	83.0	-4.7	2.3	19.2	28.6	28.4	0.171	0.242	0.207	25.2
2016	85	87.6	-1.1	0.0	18.9	35.6	29.5	0.137	0.165	0.148	24.2
2015	77	81.0	-5.9	0.0	15.4	26.0	39.4	0.188	0.209	0.194	25.9

Fielding

Year	Team	Pos	G	Inn	PO	A	E	DP	Fld%	Runs saved
2025	TOR	P	17	85	4	4	0	0	1.000	-0.1
2024	TEX	P	9	43	4	5	1	0	0.900	+0.5
2023	TEX	P	27	153	15	8	1	1	0.958	-0.8
2022	NYM	P	23	145	6	12	0	1	1.000	-0.5
2021	LAD	P	30	179	8	10	0	0	1.000	+0.0
2020	WSH	P	12	67	3	5	2	1	0.800	-0.3
2019	WSH	P	27	172	10	13	1	1	0.958	+0.3
2018	WSH	P	33	221	8	8	1	0	0.941	-1.5
2017	WSH	P	31	201	9	9	1	1	0.947	-1.3
2016	WSH	P	34	228	12	19	1	1	0.969	-0.6
2015	WSH	P	33	229	7	22	0	0	1.000	+0.7
2014	DET	P	33	220	9	17	1	2	0.963
2013	DET	P	32	214	17	21	3	0	0.927
2012	DET	P	32	188	8	13	1	0	0.955
2011	DET	P	33	195	11	12	0	2	1.000
2010	DET	P	31	196	14	14	2	0	0.933
2009	ARI	P	30	170	15	18	2	3	0.943
2008	ARI	P	16	56	4	5	1	2	0.900

Runs saved covers the Statcast era; for catchers it includes framing.

Minor leagues

Year	Level	Team	Side	PA / BF	Line	AVG / ERA
2026	AAA	Buffalo Bisons	Pit	60	15.2 IP, 35% K	4.14
2025	AAA	Buffalo Bisons	Pit	34	8.2 IP, 35% K	2.20
2024	AAA	Round Rock Express	Pit	58	15.0 IP, 43% K	3.60
2022	AA	Binghamton Rumble Ponies	Pit	34	8.0 IP, 41% K	4.50
2010	AAA	Toledo Mud Hens	Pit	52	15.0 IP, 33% K	0.60
2009	A+	Visalia Rawhide	Pit	20	4.2 IP, 25% K	2.14
2008	AAA	Tucson Sidewinders	Pit	219	53.0 IP, 36% K	2.72
2007	AA	Mobile BayBears	Pit	320	73.2 IP, 24% K	3.93
2007	A+	Visalia Oaks	Pit	59	17.0 IP, 51% K	0.53

Splits

Year	vs LHP	vs RHP	Home	Away
2021	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
2019	0.180	0.150	0.150	0.161
2018	0.253	0.277	0.265	0.283
2017	0.182	0.214	0.206	0.212
2016	0.082	0.182	0.069	0.224
2015	0.244	0.226	0.253	0.212

wOBA by split, from pitch level data, 2015 on. For pitchers the split is the batter side faced.

Postseason batting

Year	G	AB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2021	4	3	1	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
2019	6	6	2	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
2017	2	3	2	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
2016	2	4	2	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
2014	1	0	0
2013	4	0	0
2012	3	0	0
2011	4	0	0
Career	26	16	7	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000

Postseason pitching

Year	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	H	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
2025	1	0	3.83	3	3	0	14.1	12	3	6	11	1.28
2023	0	1	6.85	3	3	0	9.2	11	2	5	7	1.74
2022	0	1	15.00	1	1	0	4.2	7	4	0	4	1.67
2021	0	1	2.16	4	3	1	16.7	10	2	5	23	0.90
2019	3	0	2.40	6	5	0	30.0	21	4	15	37	1.20
2017	0	1	3.68	2	1	0	7.3	4	0	4	8	1.09
2016	0	1	3.75	2	2	0	12.0	10	3	2	12	1.00
2014	0	1	6.14	1	1	0	7.3	7	2	1	6	1.09
2013	2	1	2.82	4	3	0	22.3	12	1	11	34	1.03
2012	1	0	2.08	3	3	0	17.3	12	1	4	26	0.92
2011	1	1	5.74	4	3	0	15.7	15	1	9	14	1.53
Career	8	8	3.80	33	28	1	156.2	121	23	62	182	1.17

Salaries

Year	Team	Salary
2016	WSH	$22,142,857
2015	WSH	$17,142,000
2014	DET	$15,525,000
2013	DET	$6,725,000
2012	DET	$3,750,000
2011	DET	$600,000
2010	DET	$1,500,000
2009	ARI	$1,450,000

Public salary records run through 2016; current contract data is on the roadmap.