Mets' Max Scherzer receives 10-game suspension for using foreign substance, won't appeal

Major League Baseball announced Thursday that Mets ace Max Scherzer has been suspended for 10 games and fined $10,000 for possession of a foreign substance on his right pitching hand.

Scherzer was expected to appeal the ruling, but prior to Thursday's game against the Giants the future Hall of Famer decided not to appeal.

"I thought I was going get in front of a neutral arbitrator, but I wasn't," Scherzer said. "It was going to be through MLB. Given that process, I wasn't going to come out on top.

"The best thing for the Mets is to come to a settlement with MLB on what the fine should be and move forward with that. That's the best thing for the Mets at this point and time."

Scherzer says his issue with the situation is that there's no way to measure or quantify how much rosin can, and cannot be used. He also believes the varying conditions throughout the different cities alters how much rosin a pitcher will need so it's tough for a pitcher to know how much rosin to use.

"I hope that we can modify the rule," he continued. "The intent of this rule was to clean up the game. I don't think it was intended to crack down on pitchers that were using legal substances. I used legal substances."

Scherzer's suspension begins Thursday and he'll be eligible to return on May 1. 

The 38-year-old was ejected from Wednesday’s start against the Dodgers in Los Angeles after three innings. Crew chief Phil Cuzzi checked Scherzer’s glove in the second inning, telling Scherzer he needed to wash his hands to remove rosin. After doing so in front of an MLB official in the dugout, Scherzer was checked again in the fourth inning, with Cuzzi saying his hand was still too sticky, to which Scherzer pleaded his case that the only thing on his hand was a combination of rosin and sweat.

“I knew I was going to get checked in the fourth,” Scherzer said after the game. “I would have to be an absolute idiot to try and do anything when I come back out.”

“I swear on my kids’ life, I’m not using anything else,” Scherzer said he told the umpiring crew. “This is sweat and rosin. Sweat and rosin. I kept saying that over and over. They touched my hand and they kept saying my hand is too sticky and they threw me out because of that.”

Home plate umpire Dan Bellino told the official pool reporter that Scherzer's hand "was so sticky that when we touched his hand, our fingers were sticking to his hand."

Manager Buck Showalter sounded confident that Scherzer did nothing against MLB rules, saying he felt that everything Scherzer did was perfectly legal.

"We’ll let it run its course," Showalter said, "I’m not going to walk back through that and everything. We’ll let it run its course. We feel pretty comfortable about what went on where Max is concerned.”

"They asked him to wash it and MLB officials down the dugout saw him wash it,” he later added, “so it’s going to be pretty interesting to see where they go with this one.”

Scherzer being out puts the Mets' rotation – already dealing with a number of injury issues – in a difficult spot. Justin Verlander hasn’t made his regular season debut yet, and while he has his first rehab start lined up for next Friday, he won’t return to the major league mound until early May. Meanwhile, Jose Quintana and Carlos Carrasco are both on the IL as well, which in turn has seen the Mets rely a bit more on young pitchers like David Peterson, Tylor Megill, and Jose Butto.