Mets' Max Scherzer campaigns for summer WBC

New York Mets ace Max Scherzer has an interesting idea for the future of the World Baseball Classic.

"If there was a format where the WBC was during the season, I think you would get more pitcher participation," Scherzer told reporters, per Lou DiPietro of Audacy. "And I think it’d be more exciting for the fans, because you'd have pitchers more built up without pitch counts, and it’d be more like a real game." 

Per Marc Normandin of SB Nation, Scherzer planned to pitch for Team USA in the 2017 WBC but was instead sidelined with a stress fracture in his ring finger. The right-hander then went on to win his third career Cy Young Award later that year. Now approaching his 39th birthday, which he'll celebrate in July, Scherzer is preparing for the upcoming season with the Mets during spring training. 

"For me personally, I'm not ready to step into a quasi-playoff game right now, physically. If I do that, I'm rolling the dice with my arm," Scherzer explained. "It’s hard enough to try to make 33 starts and throw 200 innings as it is with a normal ramp-up in spring. If I go out there and try to do too much early in spring, it can really affect me throughout the season." 

Scherzer previously addressed potential problems with not maintaining his normal schedule, particularly at his age. 

As noted by the RealGM website, Scherzer also said that moving the WBC to the summer months could help prevent the need for "pitch counts or whatever it is." 

According to Eric Mullin of NBC Sports Bay Area, every round of the WBC has varying pitch count regulations. 

DiPietro compared Scherzer's suggestion to how the NHL schedules Olympic breaks for international tournaments during pro seasons. Unlike with hockey, though, weather is a significant issue as it pertains to repositioning up to three weeks of an MLB schedule. Owners typically like to avoid traditional doubleheaders when possible to have separate gates for each game, and players may not love having to complete multiple contests in a single day during the hottest days of the summer just because of a WBC.

In February, Abbey Mastracco of the New York Daily News wrote that Mets manager Buck Showalter voiced concerns about players leaving camp early to potentially suffer injuries during WBC games or miss out on needed preparation time because they don't play at all. An in-season WBC would only annoy managers and clubs even more than the tournament does in its current format, and that's a big reason such events likely will occur ahead of seasons until further notice.