Photos: The summer new Rangers pitcher Max Scherzer dominated in Fort Worth

Future hall of fame pitcher Max Scherzer is back where he began his professional career.

Scherzer is set to make his debut for Texas on Thursday after the New York Mets traded Scherzer, 39, to the Texas Rangers for prospect Luisangel Acuña.

And it won’t be the first time he pitches for a team in Tarrant County.

After the Arizona Diamondbacks selected Scherzer with the No. 11 pick in the 2006 MLB draft, the two parties could not agree on a contract. Scherzer, then 22 and from Missouri, skipped summer minor league and spring training, and signed with the now defunct Fort Worth Cats independent league team in spring 2007.

Scherzer pitched three games for the Cats in April and May, striking out 25 and allowing just one earned run in 16 innings. With the signing deadline looming, scouts packed Cats games behind home plate, radar gun in tow, to watch the top prospect touch 98 mph on his fastball in case he re-entered the MLB draft.

Almost a year after being drafted, and 12 days after his last start with the Cats, Scherzer agreed to a four-year $4.3 million contract with the Diamondbacks, and made his debut for the big league team less than a year later. He went to pitch for the Detroit Tigers, Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets. He is 9-4 with a 4.01 ERA in 107.2 innings this season.

Scherzer, an eight-time All-Star and winner of three Cy Youngs, has pitched two no-hitters and won a World Series with the Nationals in 2019. Before he became one of the best pitchers of the past decade, he showed what he could become with the Cats 16 years ago.