The tough blows keep coming for the Rangers.
Texas Rangers ace Max Scherzer will miss the remainder of the regular season and is “unlikely” to take the mound in the postseason after straining a muscle in his upper arm, general manager Chris Young stated Wednesday.
Scherzer, 39 years old, was the Rangers’ coveted trade-deadline acquisition, landing him in a deal with the New York Mets for infield prospect Luisangel Acuña. He had pitched well in eight starts for the Rangers, posting a 3.20 ERA, but exited his early start Tuesday night against the Toronto Blue Jays when the teres major, a muscle that connects the scapula to the humerus, tightened up in the sixth inning.
Typically, low-grade teres major strains take at least a minimum of a month to heal, and it is uncertain whether the Rangers will even be playing at that point.
After winning their first eight games following the August 1 deadline, the Rangers went in a tailspin, dropping 16 of their next 20. Four consecutive wins have thrust them back into a wild-card spot, and seven of their final 10 games against American League West rival, the Seattle Mariners, could determine whether Texas makes it to October.
Scherzer was slated to be a pivotal part of that run. The Rangers acquired him and left-hander Jordan Montgomery to fortify a rotation already ravaged by injury, with free agent starter Jacob deGrom out for the year following Tommy John surgery.
While the Rangers still have Nathan Eovaldi, Jon Gray and Montgomery to start games, their bigger worry, even with Scherzer out, is its bullpen depth, which fell apart at the seams during the extended losing skid.
Now in his 16th year in the majors, Scherzer is a three-time Cy Young Award winner and future first ballot Hall of Famer. He remains under contract with Texas for next season and is expected to make a full recover without the need for surgery.
Nonetheless, he joins a significant list of pitchers who are out for the year with injury, including deGrom, San Diego’s Yu Darvish, Dodgers starters Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin, and Tampa Bay’s trio of Tommy John cases (Shane McClanahan, Jeffrey Springs, and Drew Rasmussen). Angels’ star Shohei Ohtani will also not pitch again this year because of an elbow ligament tear.
