Max Scherzer’s smile said it all.
This is “Mad Max,” one of the fiercest competitors on the pitcher’s mound that the sport of baseball has ever seen.
But when Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider came to the mound to pull Scherzer out of Sunday’s season finale, Scherzer didn’t complain. He didn’t scowl. He didn’t ask to stay in the game.
He smiled.
And he smiled big, and he smiled again, and he chuckled, and he waved to those around the ballpark showing him their love.
(Of course, Scherzer had told Schneider to take a seat when he first came to get him out of the game in the seventh inning.)
Scherzer hasn’t said yet whether this would be it. He hasn’t said that he’s retiring.
But if a smile could ever speak volumes, this one did. This looked like a man content with what may have been the end of his MLB career.
Is Max Scherzer Retiring?
Nothing has been made official about Scherzer’s future yet.
When he spoke at the end of the 2025 season, he was very clearly in the mindset that he was going to pitch in MLB for as long as he could.
As this season has gone on, Scherzer has gotten just a tad more reflective.
You’ve also got to consider how Scherzer was even pitching Sunday. He had just thrown on Wednesday, and this was short rest. But the Blue Jays decided to let him get one more outing at home, since there wasn’t going to be any postseason in this season anyway.
It proved worth it, as Scherzer was sharp and got a chance to be adored by Toronto’s fans.
He ran out to the mound in the first inning as his teammates waited behind, allowing for one ovation.
And when he left, Scherzer got one final ovation:
Max Scherzer leaves the mound to a standing ovation for what could be the final time in his legendary career š pic.twitter.com/JhkKYe1lRc
ā MLB (@MLB) September 27, 2026
And come on — what an unbelievable pitcher — he went 114 pitches and into the eighth inning on short rest in what might’ve been his final MLB start.
An epic performance, on every level.
Max Scherzer’s Place in History
Strikeouts aren’t everything, but Scherzer has punched out batters as well as almost any pitcher to ever do it.
If this is it, he’ll finish his career with 3,557 strikeouts.
That ranks No. 9 all time in MLB.
Scherzer had recently passed Gaylord Perry (3,534), who now ranks 10th all-time.
He couldn’t quite catch Justin Verlander, who has already announced that he is retiring and ranks eighth all-time at 3,560.
Above Verlander from 7-1: Don Sutton, Tom Seaver, Bert Blyleven, Steve Carlton, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan.
Scherzer wore different uniforms, and had multiple peaks, and won big in the postseason, and dealt with injuries, and simply from start to finish put together a legendary MLB career.
It’s something worth smiling about.
Blue Jays’ Max Scherzer Claims Historic Place on All-Time Strikeout List