Mets pursuing Max Scherzer, who could decide soon

Max Scherzer is likely to make a decision on where he will sign before the all but guaranteed lockout begins on December 1, and the Mets are one of the teams in the mix for the 37-year-old—”aggressively pursuing” him—according to Jon Heyman.

Scherzer is undoubtedly the best starting pitcher on the free agent market, having finished the 2021 season with a 2.46 ERA in 179.1 innings for the Nationals and Dodgers, the latter of which he played for after Washington dealt him at the deadline. For years, Scherzer had been a Mets rival, having joined the Nationals ahead of the 2015 season. At the time, he already had one Cy Young under his belt, and he added two more—in back-to-back years in 2016 and 2017—in Washington.

While Scherzer hasn’t quite matched his very best level of production in recent years, he’s come pretty damn close. Since the beginning of the 2019 season, he has a 2.86 ERA and 2.84 FIP. The only slight downside is that he hasn’t thrown 200+ innings in a single regular season since he last did so in 2018.