Greg Amsinger sees a clean fit between Max Scherzer and the Cardinals, and he made no secret of how strongly he feels about it during a recent appearance on 104.1 KMOX Sports with Tom Ackerman.
The MLB Network host, a former St. Louisan, got animated while talking about St.
Louis’ offseason possibilities and zeroed in on one free agent in particular: Scherzer, the St. Louis native and Parkway Central High School and University of Missouri product.
“Do you know who I would love to see the Cardinals go get?” said Amsinger excitedly.
“Bring back St. Louis's own Max Scherzer.
“Just to impact the young arms. Just to have a Hall of Famer in a Cardinal uniform again...bring him back for one more year.
He wanted to come to St. Louis when he signed a free agent contract years ago with the Nationals.”
Scherzer’s résumé is the kind that puts him in the same conversation as Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, and Zack Greinke. He was drafted in 2026 by the Arizona Diamondbacks eleventh overall and has built one of the defining careers of his era.
But the recent production has been rough. This past season, Scherzer finished with a 5.74 ERA in 18 starts over 84.2 innings, struck out 68, and posted a 5.11 FIP. A thumb injury and other recurring injuries kept him off the mound for stretches.
That followed two more uneven years. In 2024, he threw only 43.1 innings and still managed a 3.95 ERA.
In 2025, he logged 85 innings with a 5.19 ERA. He’s 42 now, and the last three seasons have been defined either by injury or sub-par numbers.
Even so, Amsinger kept coming back to the idea of Scherzer in St. Louis.
“Bring Max Scherzer back for one year. He wants to pass Justin Verlander on the all-time strikeout list,” said Amsinger. “I think his wisdom, his approach to attacking every start the way he is, would help these young guys have someone to look up to.”
The Cardinals actually had a shot at Scherzer back in 2014. Adam Wainwright pushed for the move, but the club passed, and Scherzer instead landed a seven-year, $210 million deal with the Washington Nationals.
Amsinger’s pitch also comes with the Cardinals’ current rotation picture in mind. Kyle Leahy, Andre Pallante, Michael McGreevy, and Quinn Mathews are virtually penciled in as starters in 2027. Liam Doyle, Tanner Franklin, Jurrangelo Cijntje, and Cooper Hjerpe are also in the mix once spring training opens, though Hjerpe looks like the most likely of that group to break camp with the big-league club.
That’s where Scherzer’s value, in this scenario, would live. Not as the old version of himself, but as a depth arm and a veteran presence with nearly two decades of major-league experience.
He could bring a strong example for younger pitchers, help with the details of preparing for starts, and give the clubhouse another loud, proven voice. He might also be a useful mentor for Liam Doyle, another intense pitcher known for big reactions on the mound.
Scherzer is still weighing what comes next, saying he wants to “see how things unfold” this offseason as he considers one more year. If the Cardinals wanted to make the hometown idea real, they could be the team that gives him one last swing at a Hall of Fame chase in 2027.
In Other News...
Cardinals Just Added To A Trade Return Fans Need To Judge Carefully
The Lars Nootbaar deal from Aug. 3 is finally complete, and the Cardinals have filled in the last piece by adding right-hander Brian Curley from the Diamondbacks as the player to be named later. Curley, 23, was taken 92nd overall in 2025 out of Georgia and split the 2026 season between High-A and Double-A, where his numbers were uneven but he kept working his way through the system.
For St. Louis, this is less about immediate impact than adding another arm to the organizational pipeline. The Cardinals are treating Curley as pitching depth with a chance to develop further, which is often the quiet logic behind these delayed-return trades. The real question for fans is whether this turns into one of those moves that looks modest now but becomes easier to judge only after the next step in Curleys development plays out. [Read more 🡒]
Rainiel Rodriguez Is Entering Historic Territory For The Cardinals
Rainiel Rodriguez spent 2026 making a forceful case as one of the most advanced young hitters in the Cardinals system, and the numbers only got louder as the season went on. The 19-year-old led St. Louis prospects on MLB Pipeline after putting up a .999 OPS at Double-A and carrying that production into the minor league postseason, a year that also earned him Keith Laws Minor League Player of the Year recognition.
For a Cardinals organization that has spent plenty of time searching for impact bats, Rodriguezs rise stands out because of both the performance and the age at which it arrived. He finished with 23 home runs and a profile that kept separating him from the rest of the system, putting him in a place few players reach this quickly and leaving the next question centered on how fast the club will push him from here. [Read more 🡒]
Alec Burleson Forced A Bigger Cardinals Debate After Trade Rumors
Alec Burleson spent the days around the 2026 trade deadline in the middle of a familiar kind of baseball noise, the sort that follows a productive player when rival clubs start asking questions. Teams such as the San Diego Padres were reportedly interested, but the Cardinals held onto him, keeping a bat in the lineup that had become increasingly hard to ignore.
Burleson then answered the attention in the most persuasive way possible, unloading for a three-home-run game against the Yankees shortly after the deadline passed. He has made it clear he wants to stay in St. Louis and is open to a contract extension, which only sharpens the larger question for the Cardinals: if they were willing to listen once, how long can they wait before deciding whether he is part of the core or still an asset that could draw another round of interest? [Read more 🡒]