The Rangers Get Mad Max

Written By Carmine Tuosto, of Swish Tribune 

    Last week there was a huge trade in baseball. The Texas Rangers acquired Former New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer in exchange for shortstop prospect Luisangel Acuña. This Rangers team has shocked the MLB the last couple years. They've signed Cory Seager, Marcus Semien, and Jacob deGrom. They've picked up Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray, and Andrew Heaney. Now Scherzer. 

    The Rangers have already won as many games as they did the 2021 season, and will soon match their 2022 total. This from a franchise that has not put forth a winning campaign since the 2016 season. Perhaps accumulating talent, no matter the method, is the secret to success.

    The Rangers have someone to replace the injured deGrom but Scherzer is having a pretty bad season, accumulating a 4.01 ERA and a 4.03 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his first 19 starts. He also had a 10-game suspension for violating MLB's policy on pitching enhancing substances.

    He's already 39 years old and that right arm is going to give up soon especially with the rangers dependent on him. This Scherzer might be only an above average pitcher instead of elite.

    When the Mets first signed Scherzer they likely thought that they had a plan and he would be a big impact to their team. They expected him to deliver a World Series championship or even a hard fought postseason run. 

    I think they could've gotten a better player in return but Luisangel Acuña is still a solid prospect. The Mets will be competing for Shohei Ohtani alongside all the league's other high paying teams. Ohtani is going to get paid regardless of what team he goes to, however it might come down to which team he feels is in the best position to compete for a World Series title and it doesn't look like that for the Mets. The Mets trading Max Scherzer wasn't the right move, and may have given other teams a better chance of trading for Ohtani.