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Is Max Scherzer the best pitcher in baseball?

By Brad Berreman

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 05: Max Scherzer #31 of the Washington Nationals pitches in the first inning during a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Nationals Park on June 5, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 05: Max Scherzer #31 of the Washington Nationals pitches in the first inning during a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Nationals Park on June 5, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /
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Max Scherzer had another dominant outing Tuesday night, so is it time to legitimately call him the best pitcher in baseball?

An immaculate inning. Eight innings pitched, with 13 strikeouts and zero walks. Two runs allowed on five hits. Just another day at the office for Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer, who is now 10-1 with a 1.95 ERA, a 0.83 WHIP and a 13.7 K/9 rate (2.0 BB/9) this season.

When thinking of the best pitchers in baseball, Clayton Kershaw comes up easily due to his regular season exploits and Madison Bumgarner put himself in the conversation with post season exploits a few years ago. Even Corey Kluber, who has won two AL Cy Young Awards in the last four years, has entered that conversation peripherally.

But here Scherzer is, somehow a bit below the radar pitching for the Nationals. Even among his rotation mates, with Stephen Strasburg garnering a lot of attention, Scherzer is easily forgotten at times. But are we seeing the best pitcher in baseball right now, and a slam-dunk Hall of Famer, without even realizing it?

Scherzer is the two-time reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, and he also won the award in the American League with the Detroit Tigers in 2013. As starting pitching has been pushed to the background, Scherzer has topped 200 innings in five straight seasons (220 innings or more three times) and through 13 starts this year he is on pace to make it six straight (87.2 innings).

As Kershaw continues to break down physically, and Bumgarner is starting too as well, Scherzer takes the mound every time he’s called upon. Coinciding with that streak of seasons with 200-plus innings, and overlapping it, he has made at least 30 starts in nine straight seasons and 10 straight seems inevitable.

Scherzer has posted a WHIP below 1.00 in three straight seasons, and in four of the last five seasons not counting this year. He has allowed less than six hits per nine innings since the start of the 2017 season.

Three Cy Young Awards is enough for Scherzer to be a sure-fire Hall of Famer if he retired tomorrow. But winning a fourth would put him in rare air, and break a current tie with Kershaw as it were, with Roger Clemens (7), Randy Johnson (5), Steve Carlton (4) and Greg Maddux (4) the only others to win the award at least four times.

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Scherzer may need a big postseason moment to boost his status above where it is on a national scale. But there’s no doubt he’s the best pitcher in baseball right now, even if you hardly notice until seeing he pitched the night before and dominated opposing hitters again.

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