Max Scherzer

On the record · career milestone this season

3,500 career strikeouts — Wed, Jun 10 · night game vs. Philadelphia Phillies The scorecard → · The write-up →

Scout’s note

Pitcher Max Scherzer, the St. Louis kid taken in the first round back in 2006, is 42 now and still getting hitters out — 3,520 career strikeouts, with eight more in two appearances over the last two weeks.

Note written Aug 24 · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)

A market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of August 31, 2026.

2026 salary

$3.00M

Tax hit

$3.00M

Service time

17 yr 79 d

Options left

2 / 3

Regime flagged: the sheet's out-year codes read arbitration and 17.079 reads free_agency. Kept the sheet's; Super Two and optional assignments move this line and the service boundary cannot see them.

Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Toronto Blue Jays.

A second set of books

The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of August 27, 2026. We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.

Tax AAV

$3.00M

Guaranteed

$3.00M

Term

1 yr

His class

FA

The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.

Collect Max Scherzer

If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:

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Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.

The Bureau on Max Scherzer

The scouting press, in their own words