Max Scherzer was put on the 15-day injured list on Friday because of right shoulder fatigue. Texas manager Bruce Bochy doesn’t think Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner and the active career strikeout leader, will be out for more than 15 days.
“We don’t think it’ll be more than 15 days,” Bochy said after the Rangers lost 11-6 to Boston. “Yeah, he actually thinks a couple more days he could be ready.
But we have some concern for him. We want to take care of him and have him for the rest of the year. That’s why we’re giving him a break right now.”
Scherzer (2-4) has only made eight starts since his season began on June 23, after having offseason back surgery and dealing with a nerve issue in his arm.
The Rangers announced the move about 90 minutes before their home game started, after Bochy had finished his pregame meeting with reporters. The move is retroactive to Wednesday, the day after Scherzer didn’t pitch past the fourth inning for the third time in four starts.
Scherzer, originally from St. Louis, allowed three runs in four innings and threw 68 pitches in a loss to the Cardinals on Tuesday night. His five strikeouts increased his career total to 3,405.
Bochy mentioned after the game that Scherzer’s arm “just fatigued there” and that he could feel it in his triceps.
Scherzer said that night he was “trying to grind through these starts and ramp up” and thought he just needed an extra day off, not to go on the IL.
The Rangers had a day off on Thursday, so if things had stayed on schedule, Scherzer’s next start would have been Monday. Now, he might be ready to return by August 15.
In his last home start on July 25, just before his 40th birthday, Scherzer allowed one run and struck out nine over six innings against the Chicago White Sox. He also passed Justin Verlander for 10th place on the strikeout list, the most among active pitchers.
