Max Scherzer made a startling admission about a potentially significant injury right before Opening Day.
The longtime ace, who signed a one-year, $15.5 million contract with the Blue Jays this offseason, acknowledged that his thumb injury could turn into a major problem.
“It’s a little thing that’s a big thing,” Scherzer told The Athletic. “I’m not gonna lie, it’s frustrating. Because I know I can pitch at this level. I know I can still pitch at a very high level, as well. I know I have the pitches that I can execute and I can locate. But right now, it’s a thumb issue, and I’m gonna be battling until I’m fully built up.”
Scherzer, 40, said he’s felt fine while pitching, but the pain comes a day later.
He tossed four scoreless innings on Saturday in a Grapefruit League game against the Twins, giving up two hits and a walk while striking out four batters and throwing 62 pitches.
“When I’m out there, it heats up and it goes away and I’m fine,” Scherzer said. “It’s kind of like tendinitis, in a way. Once it gets hot and gets out there, then I don’t feel it and I can pitch the way I’ve always pitched. I’m not worried about my stuff, I’m worried about how I recover — because this can blow up fast and lead to a lot of other things. I’ll know what damage I did on it today, tomorrow.”
He claims the Blue Jays were aware of his thumb issue when they decided to sign him.
“It’s anybody’s guess,” Scherzer said. “I don’t have the answers. From the very beginning, even in free agency, I said, ‘The only thing that’s holding me back long-term here is the thumb. If you’re going to sign me, everything else is good on me. The back is good. The only issue is my thumb.’
“I thought I had addressed it, I thought I did enough grip-strength work to nip it in the bud that we weren’t going to have it. Unfortunately, it showed back up here in spring training. Everybody’s trying to figure out how to manage this, how to get around this, how to overcome this.
“It’s not arthritis, it’s the CMC joint and the MCP joint, between those two. The way I grip my pitches, I really come down on that thumb, and my thumb gets blown up because of that. When it gets too inflamed, then it becomes a nerve issue and it starts moving up the arm and it can get into other things, and even into the shoulder. So my entire arm health is predicated on this thumb.”
Scherzer has looked good this spring, giving up just two runs in 13 innings pitched along with 18 strikeouts.
His velocity has been down, however, hovering around the low 90’s with his fastball.
He spent parts of the last two seasons with the Rangers after his brief Mets tenure, making nine starts last year and recording a 3.95 ERA.
