Video: Scherzer discusses what brought him to D.C. (with Rizzo, Williams interviews)
By Dan Kolko
After getting a brief tour of the home clubhouse at Nationals Park and signing his contract early this afternoon, it became official - Max Scherzer is a Washington National.
Scherzer met with reporters today, discussing the process that he went through this offseason as he waited to see where he'd end up and what eventually lured him to D.C.
The $210 million sure doesn't hurt, but Scherzer said there was more to his decision than just that.
"You can offer as much money as you want, but if you're going to lose, it's not worth it," he said. "So for me, when you start talking about the contract offers I was getting, this team was the No. 1 team I wanted to go to. When you can start talking about what you can do over the next three to five years, this is a team you want to be a part of. I can't sit here and say we're going to win the World Series, but I feel like we have a team that's capable of winning a World Series. So you want to be a part of those type of teams."
As for this offseason, Scherzer said he didn't really spend much time worrying about where he'd end up signing. He didn't get caught up in all the different options or wondering whether he'd get what he felt was an acceptable offer prior to spring training. He trusted the process and ended up getting rewarded. Handsomely, I might add.
"Everybody thinks it's stressful. It really wasn't," Scherzer said. "I had confidence it was gonna get done. It was gonna get done before spring training, and you just had to let the process play out a little bit. For me, once the offers started coming in, that's when the Nationals seemed to really stick out to me. This was the best opportunity to win, and I can't be more happy to join a team like this, to be a part of a rotation like this, much less a team. I'm really, really excited to be a part of this."
Here's the rest of my interview with Scherzer, as well as my sit-downs with general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Matt Williams:
The $210 million sure doesn't hurt, but Scherzer said there was more to his decision than just that.
"You can offer as much money as you want, but if you're going to lose, it's not worth it," he said. "So for me, when you start talking about the contract offers I was getting, this team was the No. 1 team I wanted to go to. When you can start talking about what you can do over the next three to five years, this is a team you want to be a part of. I can't sit here and say we're going to win the World Series, but I feel like we have a team that's capable of winning a World Series. So you want to be a part of those type of teams."
As for this offseason, Scherzer said he didn't really spend much time worrying about where he'd end up signing. He didn't get caught up in all the different options or wondering whether he'd get what he felt was an acceptable offer prior to spring training. He trusted the process and ended up getting rewarded. Handsomely, I might add.
"Everybody thinks it's stressful. It really wasn't," Scherzer said. "I had confidence it was gonna get done. It was gonna get done before spring training, and you just had to let the process play out a little bit. For me, once the offers started coming in, that's when the Nationals seemed to really stick out to me. This was the best opportunity to win, and I can't be more happy to join a team like this, to be a part of a rotation like this, much less a team. I'm really, really excited to be a part of this."
Here's the rest of my interview with Scherzer, as well as my sit-downs with general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Matt Williams:
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