Grading the Max Scherzer trade for Mets, Rangers

After an hours-long saga that featured more twists and turns than a roller coaster, Max Scherzer is set to become a Texas Ranger — for 2023 and beyond. A day after the future Hall of Famer said he wanted to “have a conversation” with New York Mets brass about the team’s approach to the trade deadline, Scherzer got sent packing, eventually waving his no-trade clause to approve a deal to the AL West leaders and picking up the player option he held for the 2024 season. Infielder Luisangel Acuna — a consensus top-50 prospect and, yes, the younger brother of Ronald — is headed to Queens.

After the Angels’ refusal to move Shohei Ohtani threatened to leave us with a dud of a trade deadline, the Scherzer deal has flipped this season on its ear. The Mets, the most expensive team money could buy, are officially in fire sale mode, and there’s no telling who — Justin Verlander, perhaps? — might be next. The Rangers, meanwhile, are all in, taking a big swing to address their biggest need as they get set for what should be a wild pennant race. There’s a lot to get to here, so let’s break it all down.

Max Scherzer trade grades

Rangers: B

Given how much this team has spent over the last two offseasons on the likes of Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi — all of whom aren’t getting any younger or less expensive — arguably no team is as motivated to win right now than Texas. And if they had any hope of capturing the franchise’s first-ever World Series trophy, GM Chris Young knew his team had to address its starting rotation: With deGrom out for the year, Eovaldi battling elbow soreness and Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney and Martin Perez not inspiring a ton of confidence lately, pitching was the Rangers’ clear and obvious need ahead of the trade deadline.

So Young went out and got the best arm on the market. Unless the San Diego Padres could have been talked into giving up Blake Snell, Texas wasn’t going to do any better than Scherzer — even at age 39, even amid an up and down season in which he’s battled injury and his fastball velocity has dipped. The righty sports a somewhat bloated 4.01 ERA, but his strikeout rate remains very strong, and he’s been bitten by a fluky home-run rate that’s bound to normalize eventually. The Rangers paid a steep price for it, both in giving up Acuna and committing to an aging pitcher for 2023 and 2024, and there’s certainly risk involved here. At the same time, it was a swing this team needed to take given its current roster and window of contention, and you can certainly understand why they leapt for Scherzer rather than, say, Jordan Montgomery or Eduardo Rodriguez. And hey, at least Acuna plays infield positions at which Texas is set for the foreseeable future with Semien, Seager and rookie third baseman Josh Jung.

Mets: B+

The fact that New York was forced to sell in the first place is an abject disaster considering preseason expectations (and price tag), but credit Billy Eppler for how he’s handled this deadline so far. A couple days after flipping a 38-year-old closer for two high-upside prospects, the Mets GM turned a 39-year-old pitcher with health and stuff questions on top of three months of middling performance into a legitimate top prospect in Acuna.

At 5’9, Luisangel doesn’t pack the same pop as his older brother, but the swing is similarly violent and engineered to do maximum damage — helping him hit .315/.377/.453 with seven homers and a whopping 42 steals through 84 games at Double-A this year.

Combine that attacking mindset with a decent-enough approach, and you’ve got a 15-20 homer, .260ish bat with plus-plus speed and the ability to stick at shortstop or second base — in other words, a legit starter on a contending team. The Mets are only eating $22.5 million over the rest of Scherzer’s deal, meaning they can now commit the rest of the roughly $30 million they’ll save on finding a mid-rotation starter to replace him this winter. Acquiring long-term talent should be the goal for a team that entered this deadline season with a frankly subpar farm system, and Eppler has done so without inhibiting his team’s ability to reload for 2024.