MLB free agency: How Max Scherzer’s next contract could be historic

The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2021 Major League Baseball trade deadline by acquiring starting pitcher Max Scherzer and infielder Trea Turner from the Washington Nationals. Now the Dodgers will try to win the offseason by keeping Scherzer in Dodger blue.

If the Los Angeles Dodgers want to keep Max Scherzer as MLB free agency rolls along, however, they will likely have to pay a historic figure … again.

After signing Trevor Bauer to a three-year, $102 million deal prior to the 2021 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers now could well be looking at making history again. Bauer’s deal made him the highest-paid MLB player per year in 2021 and 2022. Now, if the Dodgers want to keep Mad Max on the mound at Chavez Ravine, it could well take $50 million per year.

You read that right. Some predictions (including The Athletic‘s Jim Bowden, subscription required) have the 37-year-old Scherzer signing a three-year, $150 million deal with his next team (Dodgers or otherwise). That’s an average annual value of $50 million and no pitcher has ever made that much in a single season.

Scherzer could make history this offseason and, with Scott Boras as his agent, don’t be surprised if that number becomes a reality.

The right-hander certainly (once again) proved his worth last season by posting a 1.98 ERA in 11 regular-season starts as the Dodgers chased the San Francisco Giants for the NL West crown (and eventually ousted them in the National League Division Series). Allowing 48 hits in 68.1 innings and striking out 89 in that stretch helped give Scherzer an ERA+ of 208, the highest stretch of his career.

Certainly the Dodgers won’t be the only team hoping to land Scherzer. Rumors say that the Giants would love to bring him further north in California and the Los Angeles Angels would love to see him move across town. In any scenario, Scherzer could well finish his career on the West Coast, holding the highest contract for a pitcher ever in his hand.

Scherzer is up for his fourth Cy Young Award this season, thanks in part to his time in Los Angeles, and started the 2021 All-Star Game, thanks to what he did for Washington before the trade. While impacting two franchises, Scherzer posted an MLB-low WHIP 0.864 and was second in the National League with a 2.46 ERA.

There’s enough on the resume for Scherzer from not only 2021 but throughout his 14 seasons with four different teams to show why if any pitcher is going to eclipse $50 million per season in MLB free agency, it could well be Mad Max.