Max Scherzer has had a ... well, let's just call it "testy" relationship with MLB umpires over the course of his soon-to-be Hall of Fame career. Scherzer is a fiery guy, someone who would walk over hot coals in order to win a game, and he doesn't suffer fools. When he sees something he doesn't agree with — whether it's an arbitrary ruling about the stickiness of his hands or a missed strike call — he won't shy away from letting you know.
Just about everyone has had a testy relationship with CB Bucknor during his nearly three decades as a big-league umpire, a span in which he's been voted the worst in the league on several different occasions. No matter where he is on the diamond, when he's on your team's crew, no one is safe.
So what do you get when you combine arguably baseball's most controversial umpire with its orneriest pitcher? Some high, high comedy.
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Max Scherzer trolls CB Bucknor from the dugout
Scherzer wasn't even involved in the Toronto Blue Jays' game against the Cleveland Guardians on Friday night; the veteran is still on the Injured List as he attempts to get over a nagging thumb injury. But if you thought that would keep him from letting Bucknor know what he thought of his performance, well, you don't know Scherzer.
The righty apparently found that performance lacking from his view in the dugout, so much so that, at one point during the top of the fifth inning, he started flipping an imaginary coin to help Bucknor determine whether a pitch was a ball or a strike.
Max Scherzer was mocking home plate umpire CB Bucknor, suggesting that he was flipping a coin to make his calls
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 3, 2025
(via @Sportsnet) pic.twitter.com/tkp1D2neDj
This is hardly the first time Scherzer has managed to get into it with the umpires in a game in which he was not even a member of Toronto's active roster: He also went nuts when a review didn't go the Jays way last month.
Heck, it's not even the first time he's gotten into it with Bucknor specifically: Back in 2015, Scherzer was saddled with a tough-luck loss after Bucknor ruled a walk-off base hit fair ... despite not having his eyes on the diamond as he tried to get out of the way of the ball. Scherzer strikes us as the kind of guy with a very long memory; not that he needs an excuse to keep himself busy while he's stuck on the IL.