ARLINGTON, Texas — Rangers pitcher Max Scherzer will take the mound this week with a little bit extra in his bank account.
The 39-year-old right-hander on Monday received a payment of $15 million, but not from the Rangers or the previous two teams he's played for.
Instead, it was the Washington Nationals sending Scherzer a big fat check. As they do every July 1, and as they'll continue to do through 2027, as sports business reporter Darren Rovell noted on X.
Scherzer in 2015 signed a seven-year, $210 million contract, but a good chunk of that included deferred money in the form of annual $15 million payments. And that included whether Scherzer was playing for the Nationals or not. So when Washington traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021, and then when he signed with the New York Mets the following offseason, the payments kept coming each July 1, on top of Scherzer's salaries with his new teams.
Indeed, it pays to strike out major league hitters.
July 1, by the way, is typically the day deferred payments kick in for baseball contracts. It's a day otherwise known as "Bobby Bonilla Day" in honor of the former big leaguer who has been receiving a yearly payment of $1 million from the New York Mets.
Spotrac, which does the hard work of breaking down and deciphering pro athlete contracts, broke down Scherzer's salary for 2024: $22.5 million from the Rangers, $30.8 million from the New York Mets (with whom he had signed a three-year, $130 million), and the $15 million from the Nationals.
Get your calculator out: That's around $67 million in one year.
Scherzer will be a free agent after this season and hasn't indicated he's thinking about retirement, though that's always an option for a pitcher nearing 40. But whether he signs with the Rangers again, or another team, one thing is for certain: Come July 1, $15 million will hit his bank account.
Spotrac's data shows Scherzer getting that annual check in 2025, 2026 and 2027 from the Nationals, and then in 2028 from the Dodgers, who apparently picked up some of his contract when they traded for him in 2021.
Scherzer just made his 2024 debut in June, after recovering from a back injury in the offseason. And while he's not the dominant pitcher he once was, he's been solid with a 1.74 ERA in 10.1 innings pitched.
Scherzer is a sure bet for the Hall of Fame one day, with 3,375 career strikeouts and three Cy Young awards. And he'll have a few hundred million bucks in the bank, too.
