NEW YORK — Back in Queens for the first time since he was traded by the Mets to the Rangers a month ago, Max Scherzer rebutted a report that said there was clubhouse “discord” between him and Justin Verlander this season.
“All the stuff with Ver and I, Ver and I are actually on a better page now than when we started the season,” Scherzer said Monday from the visiting dugout at Citi Field. “We’re much better off than we’ve ever been.”
(Most everyone with the Mets has, in the last two weeks, backed up this version of events, suggesting Scherzer and Verlander did not have issues in the clubhouse.)
New York’s clubhouse culture as a whole has been criticized during its disappointing season.
“We actually had a great clubhouse,” Scherzer said when asked whether the room had grown “toxic.” “We had great veterans in the clubhouse, everybody included. That’s definitely not the reason why we lost. We were a tight-knit group that had a lot of fun together.”
Scherzer reiterated that, up until he heard from both owner Steve Cohen and general manager Billy Eppler that the Mets were pivoting toward a contention window in 2025 and 2026, he and his teammates believed the current roster was capable of serious contention.
“That was our wishful thinking,” he said. “That was what the players wanted to hear and the direction we thought. That’s what we were hoping for and how our minds were.
“So when you do hear that they’re going to pull the plug on ’23, yeah that’s disappointing. The common viewpoint amongst us players was, ‘OK, let’s go for it in 2024. We’ve got the talent here to do it.’ It became obvious that wasn’t the direction.”
Scherzer appreciated how upfront Cohen and Eppler were about that shift.
“I honestly appreciate Billy and Steve’s honesty in this,” he said. “I understand the business of the game. I get that people upstairs had to make really tough decisions. At the end of the day, they’re trying to win a World Series as well…I don’t have time to wait around. But I get what they’re doing with this organization. They have the right thought process behind it.”
Required reading
(Photo: Norm Hall / Getty Images)
