New York Mets fans annoyed as Max Scherzer dealing with back stiffness due to sleeping wrong: "Dude even sucks at sleeping"
New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer is dealing with a bout of neck stiffness after sleeping the wrong way. Mets general manager Billy Eppler informed the mediaof Scherzer's neck troubles on Friday ahead of a series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Eppler said that Scherzer's neck stiffness is not related to the spasms that affected him earlier this season. The team still has Scherzer penciled in to start Sunday's game, but Tim Healey of Newsday reported that his start may be pulled back to Tuesday against the Chicago White Sox.
Max Scherzer, in his second season with the Mets, is suffering through one of the worst seasons in his career. While he is 8-3, his ERA of 4.31 is his highest since 2011, when he was in his second season with the Detroit Tigers.
Scherzer is in the second season of a two-year, $86.67 million contract he signed with the Mets before the 2022 season. He has a player option for 2024, when he will be 39 years old.
Max Scherzer is far off the dominant level of play he showed last season, when he went 11-5 with a 2.29 ERA and 173 strikeouts in 23 games.
The three-time Cy Young award-winner has begun to find himself the subject of trade rumors with the disappointing New York Mets coming out of the All-Star break at 42-48, 18.5 games behind the National League-leading Atlanta Braves.
The last time Max Scherzer faced the Dodgers, he was ejected from an April 19 game and subsequently suspended for 10 games after umpires found an illegal sticky substance on his pitching hand.
The 16-year MLB veteran has had his share of poor starts for the Mets this season.
He was blasted for five earned runs in 5.1 innings against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 4. He was solid but not spectacular in giving up three earned runs over six innings during an opening day victory against the Miami Marlins on March 30. He was torched for 11 total runs in back-to-back games against the New York Yankees and Braves in mid-June.
New York Mets' Max Scherzer has been one of baseball's best
Scherzer, who is in his second season with the Mets, has been one of the league's best pitchers this century. Entering the second half of the season, he had recorded a 209-105 record, 3.15 ERA, and 123 WHIP over 16 MLB seasons with seven different teams.