PORT ST. LUCIE — Experimentation Sunday went about as smoothly as Max Scherzer could have wanted.
There was the experiment of wearing the PitchCom on his glove, allowing the Mets co-ace to call signals to his catcher instead of vice versa. There was the opportunity to pitch with runners on base. But mostly there was a chance to begin tinkering with how Scherzer could use MLB’s new pitch clock to his advantage.
Scherzer had been planning for this since last spring, when it became evident the game was headed for such a change. With the hitter receiving only one timeout per at-bat, Scherzer now feels as if he’s more in control than ever.
“We kind of knew what this was going to look like and seeing how this was going to be implemented and really the power the pitcher has now,” Scherzer said on a day the Mets beat the Nationals 6-3 in an exhibition game at Clover Park. “I can completely dictate pace. The hitter having only one timeout changes the complete dynamic of the hitter and the pitcher dynamic. I love it.”
Scherzer added: “I can work extremely quickly or I can work extremely slow. There is another layer here to be able to mess with the hitter’s timing.”
After Michael Chavis had already used a timeout in the second inning, Scherzer stood on the rubber with the ball, ready to throw a pitch the moment Chavis looked up. After the inning was over Scherzer consulted with home plate umpire David Rackley just to ensure the pitcher was interpreting the rules correctly.
“I can come set even before the hitter really is in the box,” Scherzer said. “I can’t pitch until eight [seconds remain], but as soon as his eyes are up I can go, so I had that conversation with the umpire to make sure it’s legal, and it is, so just getting used to how the game is in 2023.”
Scherzer allowed one run on three hits over two innings with five strikeouts. The right-hander encountered trouble in the second inning, allowing an RBI double to Alex Call that put runners on second and third before he struck out the next three batters.
For Scherzer, it was an opportunity to work in a game for the first time with Omar Narvaez behind the plate. Scherzer provided the signals to Narvaez through the PitchCom on his glove. It was the first time Scherzer had given signals instead of receiving them from the catcher.
“You want to work through traffic in spring training,” Scherzer said. “You need those types of innings, because that is what happens in the regular season. You are not going to be perfect out there, so it’s actually good to pitch in traffic now, work with Omar now using the PitchCom, what we want to do and how the pitch clock was going to play today and be in that situation and use it. You go through all the different situations of what can be good and bad.
Scherzer last year had Tomas Nido and James McCann as his main targets behind the plate in finishing 11-5 with a 2.29 ERA in 23 starts. Nido remains and rookie Francisco Alvarez is another option. Scherzer was asked how much time he would expect it to take to mesh with Narvaez.
“What I always say is we have got to find the time when the catcher is right and I’m wrong,” Scherzer said. “And then there is a time when I am right and the catcher is wrong. After you get through that, then you kind of get on the same page. So it’s not usually until June.”