Milwaukee Brewers Among Betting Favorites to Land Max Scherzer
By Paul Bretl
As good as the Milwaukee Brewers starting rotation is led by the three-headed monster of Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, and Freddy Peralta, as the only saying goes, you can never have too much pitching.
The MLB trade deadline is this Friday, and it seems like almost a guarantee that the Crew will add to the bullpen at some point. For starters, this is a move that David Stearns has often made during his tenure; the Brewers could absolutely use more depth, and trying to bolster the bullpen is a move that nearly every contending team will make.
Milwaukee could also look to give their offense a boost with some help at either of the corner infield positions and according to Bet Online, they see the Brewers as one of the favorites to land starting pitcher Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals.
Wait—what? The Milwaukee Brewers are one of the favorites to trade for Scherzer?
Bet Online came out with their betting odds for which team will come away with Scherzer at the deadline. The Brewers are in third at 15/4, the Los Angeles Dodgers in second at 7/2, and the New York Mets are the favorites at 3/1.
On paper, this is the type of all-in move that many would love to see the Milwaukee Brewers make—especially with how good they’ve been this season. Scherzer has been one of the more dominant starting pitchers in baseball for some time now, posting a career 3.19 ERA, an even lower 3.15 FIP, and a WHIP of 1.091 over his 14-year big league career.
Scherzer is also a three-time Cy Young award winner, an eight-time All-Star, and a World Series Champion with Washington in 2019—I’m sure all you Brewers fans remember those playoffs.
At 36-years-old, Scherzer has still been pitching at a very high level this season. His ERA is below his career average at 2.83 over 18 starts and 105 innings pitched. His FIP is at a very good 3.47, and he has a WHIP of just 0.886.
Scherzer is still striking out batters at a very high clip, averaging 12.17 strikeouts per nine, and he’s walking only 2.14. According to Baseball Savant, many of Scherzer’s peripheral numbers — hard-hit rate, xERA, xwOBA, fastball sounds, curveball spin, etc. — look very good as well, indicating that this stellar season is no fluke whatsoever.
As fun as this addition would be, how realistic is it? Well, unfortunately, I don’t see this being as likely as Bet Online seems to think.
For starters, Scherzer’s deal for 2021 is worth $27.36 million, according to Spotrac. While the Milwaukee Brewers wouldn’t have to pick up that full amount since we are over halfway through the season, there still is a good chunk that remains.
It would also likely take one of the Brewers’ top prospects or two to get this deal done as well. How willing are they to trade away Ethan Small, Aaron Ashby, or Antoine Kelly, along with some other resources, for a rental in Scherzer?
Also, I’m sure everyone can agree that adding to the starting rotation is not Milwaukee’s biggest need at the trade deadline—not even close.
Ultimately, we will have to wait and see how this plays out, but there’s no question that the addition of Scherzer could be the type of move that puts Milwaukee over the top—regardless of their inconsistencies on offense.
As I’ve already mentioned, having the third-best odds to land Scherzer seems a bit optimistic to me, but Stearns has certainly surprised us in the past.