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DUNEDIN, Fla. — Veteran starter Max Scherzer made his debut with the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, but it was also his first appearance on the mound in Major League Baseball’s automated ball-strike system era.
He’s not a fan of it.
In fact, in a two-inning appearance in which Scherzer looked quite sharp against the St. Louis Cardinals, he came up on the short end of two robot challenges that turned strikes into balls.
“I’m a little skeptical on this,” Scherzer told The Athletic after a performance in which he struck out four Cardinals in two innings. “I get what we’re trying to do here, but I think major league umpires are really good. They’re really good. So what are we actually changing here? We know there are going to be strikes that are changed to balls, and balls that are changed to strikes. … So we’re going to basically be even. So are we actually going to improve the game? Are the umpires really that bad? I don’t think so.”
The ABS system is being tested during major league spring training after years of experiments in the minors. It has been the topic of several postgame news conferences, and Tuesday was no different.
“Can we just play baseball?” Scherzer said. “We’re humans. Can we just be judged by humans? Do we really need to disrupt the game? I think humans are defined by humans.”
A three-time Cy Young Award winner, Scherzer, 40, has never been shy about expressing his opinion. And as he expressed some emotion on the mound as the calls were reversed, the tone of his news conference wasn’t much of a surprise.
“I’m skeptical of it,” Scherzer reiterated. “I get what we’re trying to do, but I’m skeptical of what the results will actually be.”
As far as his overall effort, the former ace was pleased. He finished with 34 pitches, including 20 strikes, as the Blue Jays posted a 3-2 win. Scherzer surrendered a leadoff triple to Victor Scott II starting the game but settled down, retiring his final six batters.
“I’m just trying to get sped up to game speed,” Scherzer said. “You can throw as many bullpens as you want in the world, but that’s not real. You need to get out there and face hitters. There’s a game speed. I need to get back to game speed with mechanics, how everything works, where you want to deliver the ball and where you want to get the ball to — at actual game speed. That’s the ramp-up process of spring training.
“I’m not saying this is good, bad, this or that. No. This is about coming out, checking a box, executing, being healthy and getting out of here.”
Scherzer also told MLB.com that this is exactly where he needs to be for a “normal” spring. And Blue Jays manager John Schneider, in his postgame media availability, concurred, telling reporters that Scherzer “felt great.”
Scherzer was 2-4 with a 3.95 ERA last year for the Texas Rangers. He started the season on the injured list while recovering from lower back surgery and was on the IL from Aug. 2 to Sept. 13 because of shoulder fatigue. He didn’t pitch after Sept. 14 because of a left hamstring strain. He signed a one-year, $15.5 million deal with Toronto earlier this month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
