Clayton Kershaw, preparing for the final three games at the stadium he has called home for the entirety of his 18-year Hall of Fame career, is at peace with his decision to move on to the next phase of life.
Meanwhile, the end is nowhere in sight for the 41-year-old who was drafted four picks after Kershaw back in 2006.
The fire still burns in Max Scherzer, who will take the ball in Game 3 looking to get the Blue Jays back in the driver’s seat against Kershaw’s Dodgers in the World Series.
Like Kershaw, Scherzer is no longer the dominant force he was when he won three Cy Young Awards in the 2010s. But if there were any doubt about whether Scherzer’s nickname is still an apt sobriquet, “Mad Max” answered it his last time out.
“I thought he was going to kill me,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “It was great.”
Max Scherzer expressing to his manager that he did not want to be pulled out the game. (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images)
Schneider had been waiting all year for a moment like Game 4 of the ALCS, when he had the gall to trot out to Scherzer’s mound with two outs in the fifth inning. “Mad Max” looked incredulous, unable to believe anyone would dare even think about taking the ball from him in that situation.
“I think that’s just Scherz,” Kershaw said. “I don’t know if that’s old or new school. That’s always been him, you know?”
When Scherzer took the mound for that start, three weeks had passed since his last appearance. He was 0-3 in September with an ERA over 10.00. He did not make the ALDS roster. And yet, Schneider still went to him staring at a 2-1 deficit in the ALCS. This was what the Blue Jays paid him $15.5 million to do.
Max Scherzer is focused on winning a third World Series ring. (Getty Images)
“I understood where the game state was, knew how I wanted to attack, and then all of a sudden I saw Schneids coming out, and I kind of went, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa,’ like, I’m not coming out of this ballgame,” Scherzer explained afterward. “So, we had a little conversation that basically I wanted to stay in the ballgame, but just with some other words involved.”
So Schneider left him in.
“He locked eyes with me, both colors, as I walked out,” Schneider said. “It’s not fake. That’s the thing. It’s not fake. He has this ‘Mad Max’ persona, but he backed it up.”
Scherzer rewarded his manager by striking out Randy Arozarena to escape the frame. He slammed his glove in celebration, returned to the dugout, then supplied two more outs in the sixth, too, helping the Blue Jays even the series.
“I think at that point, there’s numbers, there’s projections, there’s strategy, and there’s people,” Schneider said. “So, I was trusting people. In that moment, you kind of relive every conversation I’ve had with him over the course of the year, and I trusted him to make pitches. I was joking with him, I’ve been waiting for that moment since our Zoom call in the offseason before we signed him.”
‘They’re Both Intense’
The manager in the other dugout at the World Series can relate.
Four years ago, the Dodgers were in need of rotation help when they traded for Scherzer at the deadline. Dave Roberts’ experience with the intensity of Kershaw helped prepare him for coaching Scherzer.
“I think that they’re both intense,” Roberts said in August. “But I think that Max is a little bit more demonstrative in the pen, in the game, with the intensity, with his coaches and teammates. I recall not even being able to pat him on the backside in the middle of the game.”
Max Scherzer’s time with the Dodgers didn’t end the way people had hoped. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
For most of his tenure as a Dodger, Scherzer was electric. He earned a curtain call in his first outing with the team, striking out 10 Astros batters, and went 7-0 with a 1.98 ERA in 11 starts after the trade. He recorded his 3,000th strikeout with the team that September. Kershaw would follow four years later, becoming the 20th member of the esteemed club.
“I think it’s really cool that Scherzer’s the guy right before me to get to 3,000,” Kershaw said. “I got to play with him, got to compete against him, basically our whole careers.”
But the symbiotic relationship between Scherzer and the Dodgers soured late during his tenure with the club.
Scherzer struck out 10 in Game 3 of the 2021 NLDS against the Giants, then was adamant he could pitch in relief in Game 5. His scoreless inning on two days of rest earned him the save and sent the Dodgers to the NLCS, but it came with a cost. Three days later, he went just 4.1 innings in defeat and bemoaned that his arm was “overcooked.”
Scherzer, who was the same age at the time that Kershaw is now, did not want to risk pushing past his physical limit. He was scratched from the deciding Game 6, forcing Walker Buehler to go on short rest in a loss that ended the Dodgers’ season. It didn’t sit well with some in the clubhouse — or with a fanbase that will likely let Scherzer hear it on Monday.
A month later, Scherzer signed a three-year, $130 million deal with the Mets. He left Queens ahead of the trade deadline in 2023, joining the Texas Rangers. Scherzer was dinged up going into that postseason and finished with a 6.52 ERA in limited action during that playoff run, but he contributed three scoreless innings in a Game 3 World Series win en route to his second ring. A year later, injuries limited him to just nine starts in his final season in Texas.
Max Scherzer has not indicated when he is ready to retire. (R.J. Johnston/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
While with the Mets, Scherzer developed a relationship with pitcher Chris Bassitt. Last offseason, the two had conversations about what Toronto needed. Scherzer was convinced the team “could really go somewhere.” At 41, after all, he only gets so many more of these chances. The decision has led him back to the sport’s pinnacle, as he gets ready to start Game 3 of the World Series for the second time in three years.
On a Blue Jays team that hadn’t made the World Series since 1993 — and hadn’t gotten beyond a wild-card round since 2016 — Scherzer’s experience sets him apart. This will be his 27th career postseason start and fourth Fall Classic. Compare that with Toronto’s World Series Game 1 starter, Trey Yesavage, a 22-year-old who had made all of three big-league starts before the postseason. With the series going back to Los Angeles, Scherzer’s manager trusted the moment and the stage would not get too big for Scherzer.
“That’s kind of why we lined him up for tomorrow, without having too much of a layoff from a rest standpoint,” Schneider told me. “You feel good that he’s going to be able to absorb the situation, the atmosphere, what comes with it, and then kind of get to competing and locating.”
Two Hall of Famers, Now World Series Foes
The last time Scherzer pitched at Dodger Stadium was Aug. 8. Fittingly, that start came against Kershaw, 17 years after the first battle between the two future Hall of Famers. Scherzer allowed two runs in six innings, but that wasn’t enough to best Kershaw, who surrendered just one run in six innings in a 5-1 Dodgers win.
One month later, Kershaw announced this year would be his last. Two months later, Kershaw and Scherzer find their careers intertwined again as World Series foes.
“It’s cool that we both get to be here in this moment,” Kershaw said. “Heck, I should probably talk to him. He’s still throwing 95 [mph] over there, you know. So, you know, he’s still got a few years left in the tank, probably, if he wants it.”
Two future Hall of Famers, eyeing one more World Series title for their stacked résumés. (Getty Images)
If you just compared their 2025 seasons, you might assume their roles would be reversed. Scherzer tallied a career-worst 5.19 ERA in 85 innings during the regular season; Kershaw, meanwhile, went 11-2 with a 3.36 ERA.
For almost any other team, Kershaw would likely be starting one of these upcoming games. But on a staff with Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow, a quartet that has amassed an 8-2 record and a 1.84 ERA this postseason, Kershaw has been relegated to relief duties. Like Scherzer, he has only made one appearance this October.
“[Kershaw] has handled this last month with class, professionalism,” Roberts said. “All the while, he’s always said that he wants to do anything he can to help the team. He’s followed through on that. All the stuff, finishing out the season and how everything kind of played out, was a lot on his plate. He handled it with grace. And then the kind of uncertainty of role going to the pen, he’s just fallen in line.”
The job responsibilities are unusual for the Dodgers’ all-time strikeout leader, but his presence remains valued. And if the Dodgers needed any more motivation to repeat, sending Kershaw out with a third championship is among the rallying cries.
“That’s never a bad thing to happen, when we have something that we can say, ‘OK, let’s do it for Kersh,’” Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas told me last month. “That kind of takes away from the pressure that you can apply on your own, feeling like you’re doing it for your teammate.”
Scherzer, meanwhile, has given no indications that he plans to call it quits after this year.
His body won’t always cooperate, but the fire still burns in Mad Max. Ahead of another World Series start, “having too much fun” to think about the end.
“I absolutely respect playing in a World Series, what that means, and absolutely cherish these opportunities,” Scherzer said. “So, yeah, when I get a chance to get the ball, man, this means everything.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.
