Former Detroit Tigers Legend Wants to Remain Starter Despite Role Change Rumors
The Detroit Tigers could be positioning themselves for a strong close to the offseason.
They secured a strong class in the 2025 international free agency cycle with one of their signings being a potential superstar prospect.
That only adds to the strong pipeline that’s been created over the years during this rebuild, but to come out of it, they might need to make just one move; signing Alex Bregman.
Reuniting him with manager A.J. Hinch could be the final piece that puts the Tigers into contention for the AL Central and American League as a whole for the foreseeable future considering all the young talent they already have on the roster.
Ideally, this current group gets the franchise back to the place they were when Max Scherzer was on the team.
The future Hall of Famer was acquired by Detroit in 2010 to pair him with Justin Verlander, and during his five years with the franchise, they reached the heights of making it to a World Series, winning an AL championship, and having two ALCS appearances before he left and signed a megadeal with the Washington Nationals in 2015.
Scherzer is undoubtedly one of the greatest pitchers of this generation, having won the first of his three Cy Youngs with the Tigers and being selected to eight All-Star Games with two World Series championships to his name.
But, the right-hander is in the twilight of his career.
At 40 years old, he’s coming off an injury-riddled campaign with the Texas Rangerswhere he was limited to just nine starts and 43.1 innings pitched.
Because of that, there were some rumblings about him potentially changing from a starting pitcher and becoming a closer, something he has very little experience doing with just one save in two opportunities that all came in the playoffs.
However, it sounds like the former Detroit star isn’t interested in doing that.
“… I asked that question, and the answer was, ‘not terribly likely,’ is what I was told. Never to say never on this, but I checked with someone close to Max who said the focus is still, yes, pitching in 2025 and, to an extent, doing so as a starting pitcher,” insider Jon Morosi said on MLB Network.
That isn’t too surprising.
While Scherzer did have trouble staying on the field this past season which could have something to do with his age, he also is just one year removed from an ERA+ that was 12 percentage points above the league average.
