Hours before the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals agreed to a trade involving Max Scherzer and Trea Turner, the future Hall of Famer appeared headed to the San Diego Padres, who also had been aggressively scouring the pitching market at the deadline.
Of course, in order for that deal to be finalized — and ultimately the agreement with the Dodgers — Scherzer needed to waive his no-trade clause. Given that the 37-year-old ended up with the Dodgers instead, it lent some to believe he was not interested in joining the Padres.
“I don’t need to go into those details,” Scherzer answered when asked if he was presented with an opportunity to approve a trade to a team other than the Dodgers.
What Scherzer did reveal, however, was that Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo never contacted him at the time of the Padres trade rumor.
“When Twitter was going off, I was kind of aware what was going on, but I had not gotten the phone call from Rizzo to say that was a done deal,” Scherzer said.
“Just in baseball whenever you see things like that, rumors are rumors until you actually get the phone call. The fact that Twitter was going off, and I hadn’t gotten a phone call, I knew something else was probably still in the weeds. That’s what it is.
“You can’t always fall for Twitter, but Twitter is usually pretty good.”
Now with the Dodgers, Scherzer is embracing World Series expectations and being part of a club that is in contention. “That’s what we play the game for,” he said. “I’ve been in the league long enough to know those things don’t always happen and things don’t always fall in place.
“It takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of team chemistry, it takes everybody playing the best baseball that you can in October. In October baseball funny things happen sometimes. I understand why we’re here, I understand we have a great team, but as a player you can only control what you can control.
“You can’t worry about other people’s expectations. All I can do is go out there and pitch my game.”
Scherzer looking forward to start
Having last pitched on the eve of the trade deadline, Scherzer is scheduled to make his Dodgers debut in the series finale against the Houston Astros. History between the teams will make for another raucous environment, which Scherzer is excited to pitch in.
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