Max Scherzer makes the Nationals favorites to win World Series
Now, Washington Nationals, the pressure is on.
The Nats swooped in Sunday and reportedly snatched the offseason’s biggest free agent – agreeing to a contract with ace pitcher Max Scherzer. Yahoo Sports’ Tim Brown is among the scribes reporting Scherzer has a seven-year deal with the Nats.
We don’t know just how many dead presidents are attached to that contract, but we know it’s a lot. Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal says Scherzer will get “more than $180 million”
Getting the contract in place, believe it or not, was the easy part. Now the Nats — a teams that hasn’t lived up to the hype the past three seasons — will be under even more scrutiny.
They’re the obvious World Series favorites now. That’s what happens when you take a team that was already an “early World Series favorite” the day after the last series ended, then add the best free-agent pitcher on the market. That’s what happens when you put Scherzer next to Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann in a starting rotation, three pitchers who could each be a No. 1 starter, then add Doug Fister and Gio Gonzalez. Of course, the Nats were a popular World Series pick the past two seasons too, and we know how that worked out.
The Nats don’t just need to win, they need to make everyone forget the disappointments of the past. There was last year’s crushing NLDS loss to the Giants, the didn’t-make-the-postseason flop of 2013 and the dramatic playoff exit of 2012, in which they blew a 6-0 lead in Game 5 of the NLDS. That included a four-run, ninth-inning gutpunch that still hurts in D.C.
Adding Scherzer — who won the AL Cy Young in 2013 and then was 18-5 with a 3.15 ERA in 2014 — is a new page for Washington, one where they pair a marquee free agent with homegrown talent. There’s Strasburg and Zimmermann, of course, but also 24-year-old third baseman Anthony Rendon, who had a breakout season in 2014, and polarizing 22-year-old Bryce Harper, whose breakout season is still coming, the team hopes. The starting lineup also includes Ian Desmond, Ryan Zimmerman, Denard Span and Jayson Werth.
Even through Scherzer, 30, is reportedly coming to town for seven years, the clock for the Nats is very much ticking now. Both Zimmermann and Fister will be free agents after 2015, as will Desmond and Span. There have already been rumors that the Nats would try to trade Zimmermann if they signed Scherzer. Whether that happens remains to be seen. If a pitcher were traded, Tanner Roark, who won 15 games in 2014 with a 2.85 ERA, would slot into the Nats’ rotation.
But as they sit at the moment — with baseball’s top free agent being added to one of its most stacked rosters — the Nats aren’t just immediate World Series favorites, they’re World Series favorites with win-now pressure.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
– – – – – – –
Mike Oz is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
