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Detroit Tigers: The Ace That Never Was, Max Scherzer

By Tyler Kotila

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 19: Starting pitcher Max Scherzer #31 of the Washington Nationals reacts against the Philadelphia Phillies in game two of a double header at Nationals Park on June 19, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 19: Starting pitcher Max Scherzer #31 of the Washington Nationals reacts against the Philadelphia Phillies in game two of a double header at Nationals Park on June 19, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /
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In 2015, Max Scherzer walked away from the Detroit Tigers organization as they waved and gave his money to Jordan Zimmermann the following offseason, the story of the ace that never was.

Former Detroit Tigers star Max Scherzer is arguably one of the most dominant pitchers in the game of baseball, his mannerisms, as well as domination, prove just how good he is. The best thing about Scherzer is his energy and passion to compete on the mound which you can see almost every game. For those who just completely missed it, earlier this year Scherzer was practicing bunting before one of his starts when he fouled a ball off of his face which left him with a broken nose and black eye with bruising all over.

In one of the most badass moments, Scherzer took to the mound the next day looking like something out of a horror film and carved hitters up to get the win and throw seven shutout innings. The man goes out there and throws the ball until he is forced not to. Considering he physically and verbally shows that he does not want to come out of the game, EVER. The point is, Scherzer is a true ace, something the Detroit Tigers let slip through the cracks in settling for Jordan Zimmermann.

In a  recent article, I wrote about how the Tigers signing Zimmermann to a five-year, $110 million contract was one of the worst deals in the organization’s history. Instead of signing Scherzer in 2015 the team decided to save part of the money and sign Zimmermann instead. Now the value of Scherzer’s current deal will catch up to him considering he will most likely deteriorate as he ages and NOT be a Cy Young Award contender every year as he is now.

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The Tigers messed up. There was no predicting the Zimmermann fall off unless of course you look at his 2015 stats and see that every single one of his statistics saw an increase, but the Tigers front office is trusted, right? Wrong, the front office passed on Scherzer for the likenesses of Zimmermann and then filled out the rotation with Mike Pelfrey and use the returns from the David Price trade (Daniel Norris & Matthew Boyd)

Oh, let’s not forget that the starting rotation could have looked like this…

  • Justin Verlander

    • Max Scherzer

  • Anibal Sanchez
  • Michael Fulmer

    • Daniel Norris

    Next. Al Avila and The Possible Trade Deadline Doomsday. dark

    This would arguably be one of the best rotations in baseball, but instead, the team decided that Zimmermann was the guy. The number two, go-to, give him the ball arm for Brad Ausmus… that sure didn’t pan out. All-in-all, another conclusion based on the saying that “hindsight is 20-20”. It sure would’ve been nice to “pay the man his money” with Scherzer instead of paying Zimmermann $25 million to be 0-8 with a 7.57 ERA.

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