Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer is the biggest name on the trade block ahead of Friday’s deadline. It’s starting to look more and more like he’ll be shipped elsewhere for the second half of the season.
It’s no surprise the Nationals are willing to part with Scherzer. They’re 8.5 games back of first in the NL East and Scherzer will become a free agent this coming offseason. The Nats might as well cash in before he walks for free later this year.
One of the teams that reportedly has interest in Scherzer is, believe it or not, the New York Mets. Working with a division rival to orchestrate a trade is no easy task, though, and it doesn’t look like it’ll be plausible in this instance.
According to Andy Martino of SNY, the Mets did some “digging” on a potential trade for Scherzer. In doing so, they discovered Scherzer wouldn’t agree to play for them. In other words, a Mets-Nationals trade involving Scherzer probably isn’t going to happen.
Little more on the Scherzer situation. Mets did enough digging to learn that Scherzer himself would not agree to play for them. Has no trade rights.
— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) July 27, 2021
This isn’t much of a surprise. Trades between division rivals don’t happen very often. And Scherzer, with 10 & 5 rights, is allowed to block trades he’s uninterested in.
So with the Mets probably out of the picture, where will Scherzer end up? A few West Coast teams may be at the top of the list. Seeing that he’d probably want to join a contender, the Dodgers, Giants and Padres could be in the mix.
Scherzer was an ace for the Washington Nationals on their run to the World Series two seasons ago. He may fill a similar role for another contender if he’s traded by Friday.
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