Texas Rangers pitcher Max Scherzer out for remainder of regular season with arm injury

Add Max Scherzer to the lengthy list of injured pitchers for the Texas Rangers.

General manager Chris Young announced Wednesday that the right-handed pitcher will miss the rest of the regular season and any possible postseason games with a forearm injury.

“It’s certainly bad news today,” Young said. “We’re very sorry for Max obviously. It’s the last thing he wanted; he’s such a competitor and he was pitching great last night when this happened. I hate to see this for him, most importantly. From a team standpoint, this team has shown a ton of resolve all season long.”

This is Scherzer’s first stint on the injury list this season, but the pitcher spent time on the injury list in 2022 while suffering from a left oblique strain (May 19-July 4) and left oblique irritation (Sept. 4-18).

Scherzer was acquired by the Rangers on July 29 in a trade that sent Rangers prospect Luisangel Acuña to the New York Mets. The Rangers were Scherzer’s sixth team he’s played for during his 16-year MLB career.

Scherzer has a player $43.3 million option in his contract for next season and could opt out to test free-agency.

Scherzer described the injury after the Rangers win on Tuesday against Toronto.

“I could tell kinda my triceps was starting to tighten up a little bit, It felt muscular, so you know you can usually work through that as the inning progresses it kinda goes away. I was working through the [George] Springer at-bat and I could kinda feel it but it wasn’t awful yet and then when I threw that curveball to [Bo] Bichette it just felt like a charlie horse,” said Scherzer, “All of sudden it’s in my triceps, back of my shoulder.”

It’s the latest injury to a beleaguered Rangers pitching staff, which has seen Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Josh Sborz injured this season.

DeGrom is out for the rest of the season as well but Eovaldi, who pitched in the All-Star game before his injury, has since returned to the Rangers lineup

Sborz was placed on the 15-day injured list earlier this month with a hamstring injury.

Scherzer pitched well for the Rangers after struggling with and up-and-down start to the season with the Mets. With New York, Scherzer went 9-4 with a 4.01 ERA in 107.2 innings pitched. As a Ranger, Scherzer was 4-2 with a 3.20 ERA in 45 innings pitched.

The Rangers entered play Wednesday with an 80-64 record, battling Seattle (80-65) and Toronto (80-65) for one of the two available wild-card playoff spots. Tampa Bay (90-57) has a comfortable lead for the first wild card playoff position.

The Rangers are also in a tight race with Seattle and Houston for the American League West title. The Astros entered play Wednesday in first place with an 82-64 record, one game ahead of the Rangers and 1.5 games ahead of Seattle.