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Blair & Barker

What Does the Future Hold for Max Scherzer?

11 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What were the highlights of Max Scherzer's return outing against the Phillies?

15.05 - 19.916 Jeff Blair

All right, well, Mr. Barker dropped something on me today. Front row.

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21.537 - 22.038 Kevin Barker

What was it?

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22.318 - 29.467 Jeff Blair

Caught me a little off guard. You know, because the baseball season just kind of runs and runs and runs, right? It's like Groundhog Day. Pretty much. Yeah. Or Ground Out Day.

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30.147 - 32.21 Chris Rose

Oh. Oh, I didn't go there, did I?

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32.41 - 32.83 Jeff Blair

You did.

32.991 - 33.331 Kevin Barker

You did.

33.351 - 38.577 Jeff Blair

It's okay. Anyhow.

Chapter 2: How should the Blue Jays utilize Max Scherzer moving forward?

40.261 - 43.825 Jeff Blair

So, yeah, just before he came in, Barker looks at me with those loving eyes.

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43.946 - 44.967 Kevin Barker

They are nice looking.

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44.987 - 66.385 Jeff Blair

Make sure you tell people there's only 93 games left. And I thought, eh? And I thought, hang on. There's only 93 games left. Yeah. In the schedule. That's it, buddy. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock tock. You better start hitting. 7-4, the Jays lost last night to the Philadelphia Phillies. They have the day off today.

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Chapter 3: What challenges does Vladimir Guerrero Jr. face in producing runs?

66.425 - 93.541 Jeff Blair

They've got a three-game series against the Yankees. So they have to sweep the Yankees in order to reach our goal of a 6-3 homestand. and that is going to be some heavy lifting. It is. Look, there's a ton to talk about, obviously, out of last night's game. Actually, there's really only two things. One, Vlade continuing to not come up big, which, you know, I mean, put it that way.

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93.561 - 94.743 Kevin Barker

It's a little early for that, ain't it?

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96.245 - 124.268 Jeff Blair

Nine of their games left, only nine of their games left. But more importantly, I would think the performance from Max Scherzer last night in that 7-4 loss, five runs over three in the third innings, gave up a three-run home run to Alec Boehm after asking Pete Walker to come out and quote, give me a, you know, come out, I need a blow, I need a little rest here. Um.

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125.395 - 146.233 Jeff Blair

which is never a good look when a pitcher calls out a pitching coach and says, basically, come in, I need a break. And so now the question is, I guess, Kevin, moving forward... What do you do with Max Scherzer? Operating under the assumption Shane Bieber does come back at some point.

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Chapter 4: Can the Chicago White Sox compete with the Cleveland Guardians for the division?

146.253 - 166.894 Jeff Blair

He'll probably make two more starts at AAA. Casey Kandel, the Buffalo Bisons manager, will join us later on and we'll ask him. But let's operate under the assumption that Shane Bieber makes two more starts. I made the point last night watching the game that I'd rather have an opener in Spencer Miles running out there than Max Scherzer at this point.

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167.498 - 183.11 Kevin Barker

Well, it does kind of look that way. You know, I'm not sure exactly how, as a coaching staff, you're supposed to handle a first ballot Hall of Famer. You know, I would think you call him in a room if you're John and you're Petey and you let him start the conversation, you let him end the conversation. You just ask him how much more fight you got in you.

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183.331 - 198.809 Kevin Barker

I mean, that's basically kind of where we're at with this is – You know, just the way he's been looking, you know, I've been told they think, you know, it's more lack of execution than it is stuff. Now, I saw yesterday, for me anyway, it didn't look like his secondary stuff was real good.

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199.009 - 215.511 Kevin Barker

And trying to get to two times the order, top of the order, against good hitters like the Phillies have is not the easiest thing when you don't have spin, you don't have good arm speed on the changeup, all the time not locating with your fastball. So, yeah, I would think you start there if you're Petey. You know, knowing Petey the way I do, knowing John,

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215.491 - 222.799 Kevin Barker

the way I do, I would assume that's kind of the way this conversation is going to go is you call him in a room and you basically just be straightforward with him.

Chapter 5: What are the implications of Scherzer's performance on the Blue Jays' pitching strategy?

222.839 - 237.894 Kevin Barker

You ask him the question. You know, just because optically what you just mentioned in the third inning, you know, he's kind of looking a little bit more tired than he has in the past, right? It's rare that you see a guy kind of ask for a blow that early in the game.

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237.914 - 250.898 Jeff Blair

Normally, Max is a guy saying, keep your ass in the dugout. Like, normally that's, you know, Max – Max is not famous for asking folks to come out of the dugout and give him a rest. Let's put it that way.

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250.918 - 268.82 Kevin Barker

Yeah, I don't want to make too much out of that. That's big. Yeah. I mean, you know, he's a first ballot Hall of Famer. I mean, every once in a while, just things aren't going your way. It's a little warm outside. Don't look at me that way. You know, I'm doing my best here to add as much respect to that dude as I possibly can.

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Chapter 6: How does the Blue Jays' offense rank in terms of extra-base hits?

269.12 - 270.462 Kevin Barker

He deserves respect.

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270.482 - 282.984 Jeff Blair

He does. But I am telling you that I defy you. to say that your eyebrows weren't raised a bit when you saw that on TV. I mean, as clear as it was. I mean, he basically asked three times for the compete to come out.

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283.004 - 301.637 Kevin Barker

I would think the question around him is the compete level. You know, just where is it? You've got to ask him the question. I have no idea what the answer to that is. You know, I would think only he knows that. I would assume that's why. You know, come tomorrow, I'm sure they're going to give it a day. You know, let him take a step back, think about what he did yesterday, how he's feeling.

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301.957 - 303.46 Kevin Barker

You know, does he think he can get through this?

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Chapter 7: What insights does Chris Rose provide about managing veteran players?

303.48 - 323.089 Kevin Barker

It's going to take some fighting him. Like, he's going to have to have a little bit more fight to try and just figure out how to execute four different pitches to some really good hitters at the top of the order. And can he do that? And he's the only one who has that answer, and I'm sure they'll work that out and they'll figure it out. And, you know, if they have to make adjustments and –

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323.069 - 341.943 Kevin Barker

You know, put him in spots to keep him around because, you know, he likes them. He likes being a part of the team. You know, it'll be interesting to see going forward how they handle this. But, you know, I get back to that, and I said this to you yesterday. I think they're fifth in baseball in innings pitched out of their pen. It's not fair to those dudes if Max is going through it this much.

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341.983 - 351.498 Kevin Barker

And I mentioned this, too. Four out of his six starts this year haven't went four innings. So basically that tells you every single time he goes out there. It's a bullpen game.

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Chapter 8: What are the potential strategies for the Blue Jays as the season progresses?

351.518 - 360.689 Kevin Barker

Absolutely. So again, it's just not fair to those dudes. They have to run out there, and I'm sure they'll do their best to correct that, and they'll make adjustments going forward accordingly.

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360.709 - 383.373 Jeff Blair

John Schneider said after the game last night, and this is a quote, you want to see what it looks like when he's had consistent work. I think he's earned that. You don't want to make any knee-jerk reactions. And that is something to keep in mind. He was coming off. the IL. Kevin's point, one, it was hot, and two, he was facing a good lineup that knows him.

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383.433 - 412.006 Jeff Blair

He did strike out Kyle Schwarber, first batter of the game for his 3,500th career strikeout. That is a lot. And, you know, I guess the question, look, I made this point last night in Blue Jays talk, and I stand by it. It wasn't in the cards that Max Scherzer was necessarily going to join this team a month before spring training. They worked it out so that he could join this team.

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413.369 - 437.352 Jeff Blair

I'm hoping the front office at that time, pardon me, I'm hoping they have enough of a relationship with Max that they can say, look, we'll do this, but what is the off-ramp going to look like here? What if this doesn't work out? Do we have a date in mind? Now, keep in mind that his contract, he gets paid for pitching. If he doesn't pitch, he's not maximizing his contract.

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437.372 - 438.614 Kevin Barker

I don't think he's suffering.

438.634 - 460.837 Jeff Blair

No, but my point is, you know what people who have a million dollars want? They want a million and one dollars. More million dollars. So... I'm hoping that conversation was had at that point in time because I really don't think it's fair to Pete. I don't think it's fair to John. And frankly... I don't know if I ever really want to put a player in a position of saying, you make the decision.

463.721 - 471.272 Jeff Blair

Because the player's default position is, well, let me do it one more time. Let me have one more go. What if that one more go, you end up losing that game?

471.292 - 473.034 Kevin Barker

To your point, somebody's got to be the grown-up in a room.

473.375 - 502.721 Jeff Blair

I wouldn't even say grown-up. Somebody's got to be the person to just step back and say, look, we gave this a go. We rehabbed you. Uh, we we've done, you know, we've done everything you wanted to do. We just, we need a decision here. We can't do this. It's June. It's not, not April. It's not spring training. It's June. The team is 400, 300, 300, 500. We've got a guy coming back. 93 games left.

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