There’s an emergency in Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers.
Three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer, whom the team acquired ambitiously to make the postseason, is out for the season with a shoulder injury. The risk is that he won’t be able to pitch for the rest of the regular season, or even if Texas makes the playoffs.
Rangers general manager Chris Young said on Wednesday that an MRI confirmed a strain of the infraspinatus muscle in his right shoulder, and that surgery is not necessary due to the low severity of the injury, the Associated Press reported.
“In some ways, I was almost relieved it wasn’t worse. “In some ways, I’m almost relieved that it’s not worse, because I don’t have to have surgery,” Young said, adding that “talking to the doctors has given me hope that I can make a full recovery. Team physician Keith Meister is confident that the injury will heal completely with rest, he added.
Scherzer had started the previous day against the Toronto Blue Jays. He left in the sixth inning after feeling discomfort in his throwing right shoulder. He pitched 5.1 innings of three-hit ball to earn the win.
Texas, the second wild card in the American League, is looking to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016. They are just 0.5 games back of the third-place Toronto-Seattle Mariners in the WC before today’s game, meaning they have two and a half weeks to make up ground. In this situation, the loss of Scherzer is a major blow to the team.
“I don’t want to rule it out right now, but it’s unlikely,” Young admitted of Scherzer’s return to the postseason.
Scherzer will take two weeks off and then be re-evaluated to determine if he should resume pitching.
“I have to listen to what my body is telling me,” he said, “I’ll pitch when I can throw the ball, but I don’t think I’ll be able to throw the ball for a while.”
Scherzer started 27 games for the New York Mets and Rangers this season, going 13-6 with a 3.77 ERA in 152 and 2/3 innings pitched. Scherzer, who has 3367 career strikeouts, the most of any active pitcher, has also struck out 174 batters this year.메이저사이트
Since joining Texas, he is 4-2 with a 3.20 ERA and 0.96 WHIP (walks allowed per nine innings).
The Rangers acquired Scherzer, who is the highest-paid player in the big leagues ($43.33 million), at the trade deadline. Scherzer is signed through 2024 and receives significant salary relief from the Mets.