Max Scherzer says Steve Cohen’s willingness to win, chance to pitch alongside Jacob deGrom top reasons for signing with Mets

Can the baseball season start already?

It’s the feeling Max Scherzer elicited for all Mets fans watching and listening to their new too-good-to-be-true reality of the club’s forthcoming lethal rotation. Scherzer, who has three Cy Young awards and has finished in the Cy Young Top 5 in eight of his last nine seasons, plainly stated how excited he is to be a Met and how thrilled he is to pitch as the team’s second ace behind Jacob deGrom. Go ahead, read that last sentence again. Max Scherzer — a future Hall of Famer and the active leader in punchouts — will soon bring his 3,020 strikeouts to Flushing, and team up with one of the franchise’s greatest pitchers.

“Steve [Cohen] said, ‘It’s whatever it takes to win here.’ He looks at this as he wants to win a championship,” Scherzer said Wednesday afternoon in his introductory Zoom press conference. “You don’t hear that from owners too often these days. When you can finally hear an owner wanting to do whatever it takes to win, that piqued my interest.

“When you look at the team, the most obvious thing is yeah, pitching with Jake,” Scherzer grinned.

The eight-time All-Star added his house in Jupiter, Fla., and the commute to the Mets’ spring training complex in nearby Port St. Lucie made his decision to sign with the Mets that much easier. And there are, of course, $130 million other reasons.

Scherzer’s record-breaking contract ushers in a new Mets era, one in which Cohen uses his financial prowess to bring baseball’s biggest stars to Citi Field.

The process started a year ago, when Cohen inked Francisco Lindor to a $341 million deal over 10 years. Then, in a span of four days last month, the single richest owner in Major League Baseball spent a combined $254.5 million on four free agents. Scherzer, the splashiest Mets signing among a quartet that includes Starling Marte, Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha, will receive $130 million over three years. The eight-time All-Star’s $43.3 million annual average value shatters Gerrit Cole’s previous record, set at $36 million when he signed with the Yankees in 2019.

“I don’t know where that narrative came from,” said Cohen on whether free agents were hesitant to come to New York. “We signed four free agents in the span of a few days. So whoever had that thought, I guess they were wrong. And listen, people have their points of views, right? We’re just going to go about our business and try to create the best team we can. We’re well on our way to doing that.”

The Mets’ payroll in 2022 is expected to be roughly $266 million, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, which is $56 million over MLB’s current Collective Balance Tax, or luxury tax. Cohen did not go over the luxury tax in his first year as owner, and he’s completely blowing past it in his second. The penalties for a first-time offense are negligible, and that luxury tax may look different next year after the new CBA is in place.

Cohen’s willingness to spend big on free agents is exactly what Scherzer likes to see. The right-handed pitcher has a seat at the negotiating table as part of the player union’s executive subcommittee. Scherzer said one of the union’s top priorities this winter, as MLB owners and players quarrel toward a new CBA, is to make teams more competitive. Tanking is not in Scherzer’s vocabulary.

“To see Steve [Cohen] obviously show the fortitude to be able to go past [the luxury tax] and show that he’s going to do whatever it takes to win, that’s music to my ears,” Scherzer said. “I’m still here to win, and you need an owner behind you as much as anybody on the team to put together a winning team. That’s the culture right now here with New York and that’s why I’m a Met.”

The Mets are counting on these significant moves and lucrative price tags to help get them into the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Cohen hopes the 2021 season, which featured a disappointing 77-85 finish, will be his worst as owner. For the 37-year-old Scherzer, who won his first and only championship with the Nationals in 2019, the whole point of playing is winning. He has no patience for non-competitive attitudes both in front offices and on the field. The Mets already know Scherzer’s pedigree makes them a better ball club than they were last year. But they also hope his leadership in the clubhouse will improve the team’s culture.

It’s hard to imagine Mets players going through with a decision like, for example, putting their thumbs down for Citi Field fans when someone like Scherzer, a universally respected veteran player, is in the clubhouse. It’s also hard to imagine any “rat-or-raccoon” and “Donnie Diesel hitting coach” coverup stories gaining traction when someone like Scherzer, well-known as a total professional who is open and direct with reporters, is around to clear the air. By signing with the Mets, Scherzer already proved Flushing is a top destination now and in the future. Now, the Mets hope his character bleeds into the rest of the clubhouse.

“Max’s mindset and his expectations are not static. It’s not in his nature,” said Mets GM Billy Eppler. “And I think that surrounding yourself with people like that, with high achievers, creates standards. And it’s infectious. He is by every sense of the word an interior leader, a guy that values preparation and work and most importantly competition.”

Even the pressure that comes with playing in the largest media market in North America doesn’t faze Scherzer. We’ve all seen the impact when free agents who rose to stardom in smaller markets made the switch to the Big Apple. Often, it isn’t pretty. But Scherzer already has a head start, across his seven seasons with the division-rival Nationals, learning up close what Mets fans are like. He’s just happy the boos will turn into cheers come March.

“I really relish being in these types of opportunities,” Scherzer said. “For me, the pressure of this is a privilege, it’s not a problem. So I really enjoy being where you’re expected to win. … The Mets fans, they’ve got a nice blue-collar approach, they really let you have it. It’ll be nice to be able to flip the script this time and have them cheering for me.”

So, like we said, can the baseball season start already?