The Max Scherzer sweepstakes were heating up late Sunday night, and the Mets were squarely in the thick of it.
With the three-time Cy Young Award winner expected to make his free-agent decision by Monday, the Mets were pushing hard for Scherzer and making progress on a deal with the belief they had a shot at landing him, The Post’s Joel Sherman reported.
Scherzer was originally expected to prefer sticking on the West Coast, with the Dodgers and Angels among the teams pursuing him. But the Mets and owner Steve Cohen could offer a longer contract — possibly as long as four years — and/or more money to lure him to New York.
The record average annual value for any player in MLB history is Gerrit Cole’s $36 million with the Yankees, which Scherzer was all but certain to beat. The Mets were willing to spend big on pitching last offseason, when they offered Trevor Bauer a three-year, $105 million contract that paid $40 million in each of the first two years before Bauer ultimately chose the Dodgers.
The 37-year-old Scherzer posted a 2.46 ERA across 179 ¹/₃ innings (30 starts) last season, split between the Nationals and Dodgers. The right-hander struck out 236 and walked just 36 while becoming an eighth-time All-Star. He tortured the Mets for years while with the Nationals, whom he pitched to a World Series championship in 2019.
Scherzer would provide a formidable 1-2 punch with co-ace Jacob deGrom atop the Mets’ rotation if they are able to land him. While deGrom battled elbow issues last season, putting question marks on what he can provide in 2022, Scherzer has thrown at least 170 innings every year since 2009 (not including the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign).
As the race for Scherzer intensified, a pair of backup options for the Mets came off the board Sunday night. Kevin Gausman agreed to a reported five-year, $110 million deal with the Blue Jays while Jon Gray landed with the Rangers on a reported four-year, $56 million contract.
If the Mets’ pursuit of Scherzer were to fall through, the top arms on the market they could turn to include Robbie Ray, Marcus Stroman, Clayton Kershaw and Carlos Rodon. Signing Ray would appear unlikely, as he turned down a qualifying offer from the Jays and team president Sandy Alderson has indicated the Mets would strongly prefer not to give up the No. 14 pick in the draft — the compensation for signing a player with a qualifying offer attached to him.
Stroman was the Mets’ most reliable pitcher last season, posting a 3.02 ERA across 33 starts (179 innings). But he recently wrote on Twitter that the Mets’ front office preferred other pitchers on the market.
The Mets were also interested in a reunion with Steven Matz last week, but the left-hander ended up with the Cardinals on a four-year, $44 million deal — much to the dismay of Cohen, who publicly voiced his anger that Matz’s agent did not give them a chance to make a final offer.
But after a quiet start to the offseason, while they worked to finally hire a GM in Billy Eppler, the Mets began making splashes on the free-agent market this weekend. On Friday, they agreed to deals with outfielders Starling Marte (four years, $78 million) and Mark Canha (two years, $26.5 million) and infielder Eduardo Escobar (two years, $20 million).