When the Washington Nationals signed Max Scherzer in January of 2015, there was question by many in the baseball world why a team with so much starting pitching already would hand out a huge contract to another starter. After the offseason concluded baseball executives in an anonymous poll voted Scherzer’s deal the “worst deal” of that offseason.
As we sit here four years later in 2019, that narrative could not be further from the truth. You could make a solid argument the Scherzer’ deal is the best free agent signing in baseball history, and after striking out 10 in seven shutout innings with a black eye and broken nose, the legend of Mad Max continued to grow.