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PORT ST. LUCIE — Jeremy Hefner stepped up to the plate Saturday morning. The Mets pitching coach was wearing a long-sleeve blue team-issued shirt and shorts. Vitally, he was not wearing a helmet or a protective arm guard or any gear that might shield him now that Max Scherzer — 60 feet, 6 inches away — had declared his intentions.
“Up and in.”
From the first of the five mounds just beyond the left-field stands at Clover Field, Scherzer threw a pitch. Hefner never flinched. The ball popped Tomas Nido’s unmoving mitt, the spot hit precisely. Now Hefner moved, just an appreciative nod.
That was repeated over and over for about 10 minutes as pitcher and new pitching coach worked together off a mound for the first time. Scherzer bellowed a location — down and away — or a pitch — slider, curveball — or a count — 3-2 — or some combination. Over and over for 45 pitches, he basically hit the spot. Occasionally, he offered some commentary. Hefner’s commentary hardly ever changed; just a bunch of appreciative nods.
Scherzer downplayed the significance of precision in this forum. “Anybody can hit spots in the bullpen,” he said afterward.
But on this March 12 this is all there was. Thankfully. It was good to have Scherzer as Mets fireballer rather than union firebrand. Even he appreciated the need for transition. He essentially tabled any conversation with reporters about the labor process to a future date he would not define and asserted, “I want the fans to be focusing on the games and the players.”
That is the preference, of course. There are fans of the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, etc. Not so many for various levels of luxury tax or how many teams are in a draft lottery.
And if you were a Mets fan, you would have been thrilled to see and hear the man Steve Cohen made the highest paid per annum in major league history ($43.3 million a year).
For Scherzer has been living in three regions this offseason — preparing for a major league season, being embedded in labor talks that concluded Thursday with a new basic agreement and being a husband and father.
His physical appearance and work off the mound, even just during a bullpen session, suggested he was not shunning preparation toward 200 innings while being a caring dad and the face and loudest voice of the union’s executive sub-committee.
“He is one of the best pitchers of all time, but considering what he has gone through in the last two weeks with the labor situation, he was so dialed in,” Hefner said. “He knew exactly what he wanted to do. It is how he thinks about his process and how he thinks about his routine and his bullpen. It didn’t change because he’s in a different uniform or because he has a new pitching coach or because he had a crazy last couple of weeks or he didn’t have a pitching coach to talk to for two months. He is similar to Jake [deGrom] in that regard. These guys know what they need to do to get major league hitters out at a very, very high level.”
And looking good, even on March 12, should not be minimized. Remember Scherzer did not start Game 6 of last year’s NLCS for the Dodgers, citing arm fatigue after appearing in four games in 12 days. He insisted he was not hurt. The Mets invested $130 million over three years clearly believing that. Hefner said just playing catch Friday after the two first met was reassuring because of “the life of the ball” even in that laid back forum. Scherzer said he has had “no ill effects from what happened in the postseason last year.”
Scherzer said he threw a three-inning, 50-pitch simulated game in recent days and is in line to be able to throw 100 pitches to begin the season, which now will open on April 7. Scherzer, who will turn 38 in July, noted thinning hair, but insisted he felt young and “great.”
His great is historic. In eight of the last nine seasons, he has been top-five in a Cy Young vote. That includes three wins and a third last year, when he split a season between the Nationals and the Dodgers.
Yet on an overcast Florida morning, Scherzer was still honing his craft, still chasing perfection. It might only have been a bullpen session. But Scherzer does not like where his slider is at right now, so when he barked, “close, really close,” after delivering one, yes, he was facing Hefner in real-time, but he knows from experience and muscle memory what that slider will have to be versus Ronald Acuna Jr. or Bryce Harper. So he wants to be able to throw it for a called strike or one that dives out of the zone for a swing and a miss.
That is what can be done on March 12, first day off a mound for Scherzer as a Met at Clover Park.
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