ARLINGTON, Texas — Max Scherzer never anticipated being traded from the New York Mets and said the sentiment in their clubhouse was that the underachieving team that had expected to contend for a World Series title this year would reload for 2024.
Scherzer instead found out the Mets were shifting their focus past that date — until after his contract expires. The three-time Cy Young Award winner waived his no-trade clause to be dealt to the Texas Rangers after conversations with New York general manager Billy Eppler and owner Steve Cohen about the team's plans following his final start for the Mets. "[Eppler's] answer was that the team is now kind of shifting vision and that they're looking to compete now for 2025 and 2026, and that 2024, that it was not going to be a reload situation in New York, and that it was going to be more of a transition in 2024," Scherzer said when he was introduced by the Rangers on Tuesday, two days after the deal was announced.
Since that was different than what he had heard from Cohen, Scherzer called the owner. «He basically articulated the same vantage point.
That was the new vision for the Mets, that was the new timeline that they were identifying,» the pitcher said. «So once it became, that's the vision for the Mets, then I said, 'yes, I will waive my no-trade clause underneath those pretenses.'» Justin Verlander, another three-time Cy Young Award winner, followed Scherzer to the AL West race on Tuesday, when he returned to the reigning World Series champion Houston Astros in a deal just before the trade deadline. «We did get to talk right there at the end of just understanding that there's been a vision change in the Mets,» Scherzer said of his twice former teammate.