Max Scherzer is going to the injured list after his first start of the 2025 Major League Baseball season. The Toronto Blue Jays placed the veteran right-hander on the 15-day IL with right thumb inflammation on Sunday.
Facing the Baltimore Orioles in his season-opening start on Saturday, Scherzer pitched three innings, allowing two runs on three hits (two of them home runs) with one strikeout in Toronto’s 9-5 defeat. He threw 45 pitches altogether, 28 of them for strikes.
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Scherzer, 40, left Saturday’s outing with soreness in his right lat muscle. That injury developed because of the thumb issue, according to Scherzer, because he had to alter his delivery to compensate. The plan was for him to throw approximately 80 pitches.
“The thumb is absolutely critical to your arm health,” Scherzer told reporters afterward, via the Associated Press. “I’ve got to get this 100 percent before I pitch again.”
Scherzer told reporters afterward that he felt “imminent danger” of a more serious injury had he continued to pitch.
“I just didn’t feel like I could really let the ball go,” Scherzer added. “I had to back down the effort level. I was able to at least get through three and not blow up the bullpen. But after that third inning, I could just kind of tell we’re in imminent danger.”
Blue Jays manager John Schneider confirmed that Scherzer felt an issue during his pregame warmup, but tried to pitch through it.
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Scherzer struggled with the thumb injury during spring training, limiting him to 13 innings in four starts. He struck out 18 batters, allowing two hits on five hits. But the thumb was a concern, calling “a little thing that’s a big thing,” because the condition developed from how he grips the ball.
“It’s kind of like tendinitis, in a way,” he told The Athletic’s Tyler Kepner. “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.”
Scherzer signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the Blue Jays after shoulder fatigue and a hamstring strain limited him to only nine starts with the Texas Rangers last season. He compiled 40 strikeouts in 43 1/3 innings, finishing with a 3.95 ERA.
A three-time Cy Young Award winner, Scherzer has a career 3.16 ERA and 216-112 record in 458 starts over 18 seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, in addition to the Rangers and Blue Jays.
