Max Scherzer was not 'itching to jump ship.' But conversations with Mets officials in which they indicated a plan to take a step back next season influenced his desire to be traded. Exclusive with Ken_Rosenthal:
“If they had said, ‘We’re going to hold on to all the ‘24 pieces,’ that would have been a different story,” Scherzer said. “But they were saying no, we’re going to be moving players that are under contract for 2024 before the deadline.
“That’s a completely different vision from what everybody had in the clubhouse. All the players had a vision of, we reload for 2024. That was no longer the case.” But Scherzer, who could have opted out of his three-year, $130 million free-agent contract at the end of the season, said he would have preferred to stay with the team if Eppler and Cohen had told him their intention was to retool quickly.