Should the St. Louis Cardinals sign free agent Max Scherzer?

Should the St. Louis Cardinals sign free agent Max Scherzer?

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It’s the question St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz is asking this morning.

I don’t know whether a signing would happen since Scott Boras is his agent but he would make a strong St. Louis starting rotation even stronger. At the same time, a Scherzer signing would block the chance that Carlos Martinez or Marco Gonzales have at joining the rotation in Spring Training. The Cardinals aren’t afraid to work with Boras as other teams might be as they have signed Matt Holliday, Kyle Lohse, J.D. Drew and Rick Ankiel in the past.

The 2013 American League Cy Young Award winner was offered an extension by the Detroit Tigers before the season. It was a six-year deal valued at $144 million but he turned it down.

The question soon becomes whether it is worth the risk to sign a pitcher for over $100 million. Pitchers break down more easily than position players and Tommy John surgeries are becoming the new normal in baseball these days. That’s not to say that they don’t deserve those contracts. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, a three-time CYA winner, certainly does and in three more seasons or so, the left-handed starter is meets the ten-year rule for induction into the Hall of Fame.

The time may have passed for Mark Buehrle to have a chance at pitching for his native Cardinals but certainly not for Scherzer. The 2006 first round pick just turned 30 at the end of July. He’s still in his prime. It wasn’t until the 2013 season in which everything started to come together for the St. Louis native.