ST. LOUIS — Max Scherzer will always be the one that got away for St. Louis Cardinals' fans, and it's not hard to see why.
The Parkway Central High School native has starred for three teams in his career, spanning from Arizona to Detroit to Washington. Scherzer has won three Cy Young awards, been voted onto seven All Star teams, and collected top ten MVP votes in three seasons. In three other seasons where he didn't win the Cy Young award, he's finished in the top five pitchers for voting.
Scherzer will pitch Game 7 of the World Series Wednesday night, aiming to deliver the Washington Nationals their first title. A season after Bryce Harper abandoned the legend status of D.C., Scherzer now seems to fit into that role. Anthony Rendon is one of the best hitters in baseball, but there's a good chance he plays for a different team next year. Juan Soto is a young fiery talent, but only 21 and still a bit raw. Scherzer is the man and rightly so.
He could have been the man in St. Louis.
Around five years ago, Scherzer was a free agent. He had just won 18 games for Tigers, with a 2.85 FIP in 33 starts. In essence, outside of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he could have gone anywhere and challenged for the team role of best pitcher. He had only gotten better since his early days in Arizona, where he collected a lot of strikeouts yet couldn't pitch deep into games. He was an ace in waiting, and John Mozeliak let him pass by the front door of Busch Stadium.
Bill DeWitt Jr. has stated since there was a missed opportunity, and Mozeliak has all but said it as well. They missed out on bringing a hometown kid into a sea of red. With Scherzer, who knows how many seasons go differently? I can assure you the 2015 NLDS against the Chicago Cubs, where John Lackey had to pitch twice, collects an alternate ending. You add a horse like Scherzer and things change. The "what could have been" scenarios here will make your stomach cringe.
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Why didn't Mozeliak go for it? A burgeoning ace in Michael Wacha, perhaps? I don't buy that. Wacha had just missed half of 2014 due to an uncommon and potentially chronic shoulder injury. Adam Wainwright was the ace, but why not sign another? Chris Carpenter was no longer around. You can never have too much *very, very good* pitching. Look at the World Series with Washington and the Houston Astros for reference.
Scherzer would have completed the Cardinals in more ways than one. You can bet free agents would have looked at this town a little differently with a guy like Scherzer on board. It's not exactly science to determine the number of wins he would have added to the club, but since the start of the 2015 season, he's contributed 26 wins above replacement to the Nationals via Fangraphs. 26 more wins than the next man up in five seasons. Would that be something you're interested in? You bet.
The toughness factor is something Fangraphs and Baseball Reference can't exactly calculate. This past season, Scherzer fouled a ball off his face in batting practice, giving him a gnarly black eye and swollen nose. He would pitch that very night and pitch well. Oh, and how is he taking the mound at Minute Maid tonight after being unable to dress himself on Sunday morning? A toughness gene few pitchers have.
After two days of treatment and a cortisone shot, Scherzer was ready in an emergency capacity during Tuesday night's Game 6. The trapezius muscle had locked up on Scherzer on Sunday, and was so bad the man could barely turn his body during the media session where it was announced he wouldn't start Game 5. Last night, he was ready.
You have to be a unique specimen to throw as violently as Scherzer. When he pitches, home plate and the hitter standing above it did something wrong to him. Every pitch lands like a fighter jet in the catcher's glove with the vengeance of seven avenging Liam Neesons. A loud grunt, fist pump, and gunslinger-type walk off the mound follows. Scherzer doesn't pitch; he unleashes fury upon the opposition.
That's why in more ways than one, Scherzer reminds me of Carpenter. A mad man on the mound. It's helped him strike out 200+ in eight consecutive seasons. How many Cardinals pitchers have done that? Zero. Not even Bob Gibson.
Watching him pitch has always been a wicked concoction of wild entertainment and bittersweet envy.
Wednesday will be something else. Seeing a hometown kid climb the bump in a winner-take-all contest, trying to pitch his team not only to their first World Series title, but also the first team to win every World Series game on the road. No worries, Max will take care of it.
I hope he pulls it off. What can I say, he's not just an action film in one out there; Max is an otherworldly type talent who only gets better with age. A literal D.C. superhero. I'll always wonder what could have been in Mozeliak and DeWitt Jr. had thought, and spent, differently.
You should too as the Cardinals turn a corner from playoff contender to hopeful World Series returnee. It's good to remember the ones that got away. They keep a front office honest moving forward.