Mets' Max Scherzer Responds to 10-Game Suspension for Illegal Substance on Hand

Max Scherzer says there was only sweat and rosin on the sticky hand that earned him a 10-game suspension on Thursday.

The Mets pitcher, who was ejected in the fourth inning of the Mets' 5-3 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday for alleged violation of foreign substance rules, said he grabbed his hair for sweat before having his hand checked by the umpire.

"Yeah, my hand was sticky. That's what happens when you mix sweat and rosin," said Scherzer on Thursday, h/t SNY TV. "And it was sticky. I'm not here to say it wasn't. But that's legal. There's nothing else there."

The umpires decided the stickiness was "inconsistent with the use of rosin and/or sweat alone," according to MLB.

When asked if the level of stickiness was normal for him, Scherzer said it "could be like that in a day game."

Scherzer is not appealing his suspension, saying he does not believe he would win an appeal against MLB without a neutral arbitrator.

After an inspection at the end of the second inning, Scherzer was told to wash his hands, according to the MLB report.

When checked again prior to the third, the umpires found Scherzer's pitching hand clean but ordered him to replace his glove, which they said had a sticky substance in the pocket.

After a final inspection in the fourth inning, the umpires found that Scherzer's hand "was even more glossy and sticky than it was during the second inning inspection." Plate umpire Dan Bellino told ESPN it was the stickiest hand he had inspected in three seasons.

"Compared to the first inning, it was so sticky that when we touched his hand, our fingers were sticking to his hand," Bellino said. "Whatever was on there remained on our fingers afterwards for a couple innings. It was far more than we've ever seen before on a pitcher during live action."

Scherzer said he grabbed his hair for sweat before both the third and fourth innings.

"There's no uniform stickiness," Scherzer said. "There's no objective, quantifiable measurement of stickiness, of tackiness. What can be deemed legal one inning is all of a sudden deemed illegal in the next inning just by applying sweat. That's my problem with this."

Crew chief Phil Cuzzi, who threw out Scherzer after the fourth-inning inspection, has been in charge of all three sticky-hand ejections that have taken place since MLB began cracking down on pitchers' use of foreign substances in 2021.

Scherzer expressed frustration both with the subjectivity of the foreign substance rules and the multiple checks of his hand and glove throughout the first four innings.

"I understand where Phil's coming from, but this is bigger than Phil. I'm saying, how is this rule being applied?" Scherzer asked. "If my spin rates are fine, my spin rates are in a legal range, why is the check even happening? That's my vantage point."

With Scherzer suspended, and with Justin Verlander, José Quintana and Carlos Carrasco on the injured list, the Mets might have to reach into their bullpen to fill out the starting rotation over the next week.