Max Scherzer, the fiery pitcher with two different-colored eyes, has been dominating hitters over the course of his 15 year MLB career. The right-hander came into the league in 2008 and he was still going after the 2022 season. Over the course of his 15-plus-year career, he has amassed over 3,000 strikeouts and he has won baseball's top award for pitching, the Cy Young, three times. He is a surefire Hall of Famer.
Max Scherzer's net worth is approximately $120 million. According to Spotrac, he has signed over $375 million in contracts over the course of his career. His most recent contract was for three years and $130 million.
Max Scherzer's Career
Scherzer first came into the league in 2008 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was 23 at the time and was viewed as one of the best prospects. He pitched one full season ('09) and then was subsequently traded to the Detroit Tigers as part of a three-team blockbuster deal that saw Tiger favorite Curtis Granderson go to the New York Yankees.
He then spent the next five seasons on an upward trajectory, getting steadily better each year. It culminated in '13 when he led the Majors in wins with 21 and again in '14 with 17 wins. ‘ 13 was when he won his first Cy Young Award.
When he was set to become a free agent after '14, he had actually turned down a large contract extension with the Tigers and signed with the Washington Nationals for 7 years and $210 million, and made the city of Washington his baseball home for the next six-and-a-half seasons.
He was then traded to the Dodgers in 2021 and signed with the New York Mets for that three-year $130 million deal during that offseason. Since he is going to turn 40 during the last year of his contract, it will likely be his last contract as a player. These lucrative contracts have made Scherzer one of the richest baseball players in the world.
Scherzer has been known as a strikeout pitcher. The most he had in one season was in '18 exactly 300 hitters. He had also struck out more than 200 hitters eight other times as of the start of the '23 season. The veteran was on course to finish with well over 200 career wins. His other accomplishments include his being named as an All-Star eight times and he was even in the Top 10 of MVP voting three times.
Over the course of his career, many fans have viewed Scherzer as being a hired arm, going to the team that will pay him the most money. This viewpoint all started when he refused that lucrative contract extension that Detroit offered.
That viewpoint may have its merits, but Scherzer has also been seen as being someone who also brings intensity and stellar work ethic to the locker room of the team he is with. He is a leader and other pitchers on the staff learn from watching how he prepares day in and day out.
Max Scherzer Contract Details
Much like his statistics, Max Scherzer has seen his contracts get more lucrative over the course of his career. He started off making $1,450,000 as a rookie in '04 and he was making $43,333,333 each year of his Mets contract. That represents the single highest mark in his earnings, but he also made between $34-$37 million during the last years of his Nationals contract.
Some of those earnings are deferred and he will continue collecting money from Washington even though he pitches for other teams until '27. The Los Angeles Dodgers will pay him in '28.
Max Scherzer Endorsements
Baseball players tend not to get too many endorsement deals. They are nowhere near as marketable as someone like LeBron James or Michael Jordan in his prime. He still does pretty decently for himself, pulling in around $1 million a year from companies like Nike, Rawlings, Indeed, and ARIA Exchange. He made the extra bulk of his money just from his playing contracts.
Despite that lack of marketing recognition – even with his unique eyes – he is not Madison Avenue's dream pitchman. He is still more than set, living in Florida during the off-season and having a net worth of $120 million.
Sources
https://www.mlb.com/news/d-backs-traded-max-scherzer-at-2009-meetings-c263126046
twitter.com/spotrac/status/1556089329272897536?s=61&t=mWwi-E3PrGV_C0ncwHbAOg
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/scherma01.shtml
