The right-hander is in his first year with the San Francisco Giants and is preparing for his 20th big league season. He has 262 career wins, the most among active pitchers.

Scherzer signed a one-year, $15.5 million contract with Toronto after an injury-plagued 2024 with the Texas Rangers.

This is not a golden era for starting pitchers. After all, in a five-year stretch from 2015-19, pitchers tallied at least 270 strikeouts on 10 occasions. Last season, no one reached 230 whiffs. And in ...