The Nationals released some news that Max Scherzer has a stress fracture in his knuckle of his ring finger on his throwing hand. Scherzer took to Twitter and wrote the following:
— Max Scherzer (@Max_Scherzer) January 9, 2017
The key parts of Scherzer’s Tweet is that he is “… on pace to return before Spring Training” and that the 32-year-old Scherzer will no longer participate in the World Baseball Classic. The Nationals in a media release said that they expected Scherzer “to be a full participant” in Spring Training which requires the Nationals’ pitchers and catchers report to the new West Palm Beach, Florida facility on February 14th.
There is not much more to add to this than what Scherzer wrote in the Tweet.
Scherzer is the reigning National League Cy Young winner which made him just one of six pitchers in baseball history to win the Cy Young award in both leagues. Scherzer is clearly the ace and workhorse of the Nationals staff, and one of the best pitchers in baseball from 2013 to 2016 where he ranks first in wins, first in innings pitched, first in strikeouts, third in K/9, and second in FanGraphs pitcher’s WAR.
Scherzer pitched 240 1/3 innings between the regular season and playoffs in 2016, and went 20-7 during the regular season and 0-1 with a no-decision in the NLDS. Scherzer made a controversial decision to pitch the final game of the regular season for a chance to achieve his 20th win which set him up for the Game #1 start in the post-season on regular rest. Scherzer gave up four runs over 6 innings in the NLDS Game #1 which included two home runs.
