Max Scherzer offers suggestion for how to improve WBC

Max Scherzer was one of several top MLB pitchers who chose not to take part in the World Baseball Classic due to concerns about their health, and the New York Mets pitcher believes he knows a way to remove that variable from the tournament.

Scherzer said the issue for him and many other pitchers is not being ready to pitch in a high-stress situation by the time the WBC begins, which was on March 7 this year. The right-hander told Scott Braun of “Foul Territory” that he would like to see the start of the WBC pushed back by a few weeks.

“If the pitchers can get fully ramped up, if you let me get those five or six starts in … start the WBC the last week of spring training once we’ve built up and then run the thing through the first week of the season,” Scherzer said. “Whatever you do with the games, whether you backfill those with doubleheaders or you move to (a 154-game season), whatever the semantics are of solving that. Then all the major pitchers who participate are fully ramped up.

“That’s the No. 1 concern with this and why guys didn’t want to participate. You need spring training. You need to get built up for 100 pitches before you want to step into a game where everything’s on the line.”

The problem, as Scherzer mentioned, is that having the WBC start at the end of spring training would impact MLB’s regular season schedule. MLB is a partner in the tournament, but it seems highly unlikely that owners would agree to shortening the season or playing double-headers to accommodate the WBC.

You can hear more from Scherzer below: