Max Scherzer criticizes Mr. Robot: “Can we be judged solely by humans?”

Pitcher Max Scherzer had his first outing as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, who defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 to improve to 3-0 in the Grapefruit League. The three-time Cy Young Award winner allowed one run in two innings in his Spring Training debut.

At 40 years of age, Scherzer showed some of the fire that has become his trademark during his 18-year career, allowing an opening triple to Victor Scott II to start the game, then calmed down and retired his last six batters. He left with four strikeouts, thanks to his 92-93 mph fastball. In total, he threw 20 of 34 pitches for strikes, but beyond making his debut with the Blue Jays, he had his first encounter with the Automatic Ball-Strike (ABS) system, and he didn’t like it at all.

Scherzer made it clear that he is not a fan of the Robot Ump and in his first opinion on the matter said he was skeptical about this system that after being tested in the Minor Leagues, it is the first time it is used in the Majors, although for now it will only be in Spring Training, it will not be seen during the 2025 season.

“I understand what we’re trying to do here, but I think Major League umpires are really good. They’re really good. So what are we really changing here? We know there’s going to be strikes that are changed to balls, and balls that are changed to strikes. So we’re basically going to be even. So are we really going to make the game better? Are the umpires really that bad? I don’t think so,” Scherzer said in words reproduced by The Athletic.

Scherzer’s automatic strike nightmare

MLB tested ABS to get feedback from Major League players and the opinion of an experienced player like Max Scherzer will be valuable, although he did not do very well in his first two meetings with Mr. Robot.

In just the 11th pitch of the game, Roberto Ortiz called a strike against Lars Nootbaar, which was challenged by the Cardinals outfielder and the decision was changed to a ball.

In the next inning, it was Scherzer‘s turn to challenge a ball on a curveball to JJ Wetherholt, but technology was not on his side and the Blue Jays ace went through a nightmare in his first encounter, to the point of asking that if players are human, they should be judged by humans.

“Can we just play baseball?” Scherzer questioned, before adding: “We’re humans. Can we just be judged by humans? Do we really need to interrupt the game? I think humans are defined by humans.”