1 top skill for each of the four new free agent additions

The Mets have a special 1-2 rotation punch with Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer

At 37 years old, Max Scherzer still has some of the best swing and miss stuff in baseball.

In 2021, Scherzer made 30 starts and pitched 179.1 innings. He gave up just 119 hits, 49 earned runs, 36 walks, and struck out 236 batters. He had a 2.46 ERA, 2.97 FIP, 0.846 WHIP, 6.0 H/9, 1.2 HR/9, 1.8 BB/9, 11.8 K/9, and an ERA+ of 166. That ERA is his career-low, he led the NL in BB/9, and he led the league in WHIP and H/9. He finished 3rd in the Cy Young voting for his efforts.

He struck out 34.1% of batters he faced and walked only 5.2%, good for a K/BB of 6.56, which was second in the league. His Baseball Savant page is redder than his Nationals jersey. He finished in the top 90% in seven categories (96th in strikeout rate, 92nd in xwOBA, xERA, xBA, walk rate, whiff rate, and fastball spin. He only had two categories where he ranked in the bottom 50%: max exit velocity (which is blue for pretty much everyone, since it measures the singular hardest hit ball a pitcher gives up) and barrel rate, which was only slightly below average at 47%.

The bottom line is Mad Max is still an elite pitcher, and even when his peripherals and velocity have dropped a little bit as he’s gotten older, he’s still one of the best in the game. I can’t wait to watch him pitch alongside Jacob deGrom.