If the Toronto Blue Jays are to champion the American League East, Max Scherzer needs to bring his A-game throughout the season’s second half.
The New York Yankees, rivals to the Blue Jays, will roll into Toronto on Monday for a three-game series at Rogers Centre. Tuesday’s game has Scherzer slated to take the hill for the Blue Jays.
With just a three-game lead over the “the Bronx Bombers,” and 65 games left in the regular season, each win or loss, particularly against a division rival, becomes increasingly important. Veteran pitchers like Scherzer, who has participated in multiple postseason series throughout his 18-year MLB career including two World Series championships (2019 & 2023), know what a difference one loss in division play could mean.
What Blue Jays’ manager John Schneider is counting on from Scherzer is for him to build on his last performance on July 11, a 7–6 victory in West Sacramento, California, over the Athletics. Efficiency, durability, mental toughness, and control of his pitchers, when Scherzer is locked in with his strengths, he routinely leaves the game giving his club a better opportunity to claim the win. This is why Toronto signed the three-time Cy Young Award winner back in February.
It has been since 1993 that the Blue Jays hoisted the Commissioner’s Trophy, after winning their second consecutive World Series championship. Acquiring Scherzer as a free-agent is a move by Toronto management seen as one that could bring a third World Series title to “the Queen City.”
Scherzer is due to pick off consecutive wins. He’s been slow-coming with his pitching prowess this season. Coming off the MLB 60-day injured list on June 25, after rehabilitating a right thumb injury, Toronto needs to keep Scherzer on the pitching mound. It’s that simple. Thus far, he’s only pitched in five games for the Blue Jays. The club needs more appearances, and the more work Scherzer gets, traditionally, the better he performs.
The eight strikeouts over six innings of work against the Athletics on July 11 was encouraging. The 90 pitches thrown showed no pain in Scherzer’s delivery. It was his first win of the 2025 season, and his first quality start (a game where the pitcher allows three earned runs or fewer over a six innings span) in a Blue Jays uniform. The 4.70 ERA over 23 innings thrown, in five starts, is concerning. The more work, the looser the pitching arm, the more encouraging the results—hopefully.
Scherzer is too talented to be average in Toronto. He literally has dominated in all categories, while pitching in both the American and National Leagues since 2008. Eight times an All-Star, two 20-game win seasons, 11th on the MLB all-time strikeout chart with 3,431, a lifetime 3.17 ERA, 217 wins, and the 471 games played have Scherzer in future Hall of Fame status. The 2,901 innings pitched for six clubs have had to take its toll on Scherzer’s velocity and to some extent, his control on getting the ball over the plate where he wants it to go.
Postseason chases are where Scherzer has excelled. He had his first taste of knocking on the game’s grand prize in 2012, while with the Detroit Tigers, when the club won the American League pennant. The San Francisco Giants swept the Tigers in four games of the World Series in 2012.
Toronto knows, when they signed Scherzer, that they weren’t getting the same pitcher who as a Washington National recorded 300 strikeouts in the 2018 season. Schneider and Blue Jays’ pitching coach Pete Walker have been around baseball long enough not to be expecting a complete game out of the celebrated right-handed who has given up a mere 763 walks throughout his career.
They understand, from now until the regular season’s final game on Sept. 28 in Toronto with the Tampa Bay Rays, Scherzer’s right thumb could experience inflammation. This is where mental toughness and experience should carry Scherzer through the next two and a half months of baseball.
Currently second among active MLB pitchers in wins, to keep Scherzer’s competitive juices flowing, he could be keeping an eye on former teammate Justin Verlander’s strikeout totals. Verlander, 10th all-time with 3,483 strikeouts, and Scherzer on his heels in 11th place with 3,431, from a personal standpoint, the strikeouts give and take between the two offers an intriguing subplot over the second half of the season.
Remaining in the pitching rotation is a huge first step to Scherzer being a determining factor at the success of the Blue Jays, on a whole, every fifth day that he gets the ball. Toronto has the bats to score more runs than their opponents; George Springer, Bo Bichette, and Vladimir Guerrero, for starters. Chris Bassitt and Kevin Gausman, from a pitching perspective, compliment a healthy Scherzer. The Blue Jays’ puzzle is complete when its final piece, Scherzer, is snug in place. Tuesday’s starting assignment against the Yankees is huge for Scherzer.
