OverDrive - May on Raleigh's MVP-caliber season, Blue Jays' playoff outlook and Scherzer on the mound

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Former MLB Pitcher and Host of the MayDay Podcast Trevor May joined OverDrive to discuss Max Scherzer's season with the Blue Jays and his role in the playoffs, the starting rotation entering the final stretch, the veterans on the team, Cal Raleigh's case for the AL MVP, his monster all-around season and more.

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How you doing, Trevor? I'm great. How are you guys doing? We're doing well. In terms of your evaluation of Max Scherzer, the rest of the way. Does he simply need to stay healthy? Does he need to show he still got Ace-like stuff? Or is he just a lock for you? Come playoff time, that guy's going to get the ball.

I think that it's staying healthy at this point in Max's crue. career is goal number one. You know, you can't provide value your team. You can't help your team win if you're not on the field. So if he's healthy and he's out there, he is just knowing what I know about him. He is confident in his ability to compete. And that's really all you can ask for for a guy who's, you know, been in the league for 15 plus years.

So I would say, though, give him the ball in the playoffs because if so much of pitching well in the playoffs and getting the job done at that level is just sheer willpower. And there is not a guy, even at his age, there's not a guy in the league who has more willpower than Max Scherzer. So I

find spots to give it to him, give him the opportunity, have it be a spot that it says to lose, and then, you know, make adjustments as you need to, as you know, that's what you need to do in the playoffs. Well, it's also, like, if you look back at the way some of these games have gone for the Jays, whether it's been in the wild card the last few years,

pretty short leash for some of the starting pitchers. Like, what do you think the reaction is if all of a sudden Scher, you know, he's starting a playoff game, gets into a little bit of a jam, maybe they start to bring out the analytics and they're like, we're going to take you out. Like, is that in their best interest, or do you let a guy like that work it out on his own?

That's kind of the name of the game for anybody. Even the guys at the top of their game. There's very few. I think it's a small handful at this point where in a playoff situation, especially to start off a series or a game that is kind of must win where you just simply can't let that crooked number go up there. And that is the name of the game for starting pitching. So even the, you know, the Derek Scoobles and the Garrett Crochets of the world,

they're even going to have shorter leashes than they would during the regular season as well. So if you put that in the context for Max, His lease would be shorter than he would like probably anyways, even if he were in primetime Max Scherzer territory. And that is just something that you have to do in this day and age, especially with how many quality arms are out of the bullpen. But of course, you know, if the bullpen is a little sparse, you tend to let him go. I think that the number one thing that every manager and every organization would love to just not even have to think about that. we know that's usually wishful thinking but if you know the guy's cruising there's no reason to pull the trigger on that unless there are some some rough waters in insights and I think that

a couple times in recent years we've had we've kind of pulled too early so it'll be interesting to see kind of with especially the jays and the whole rotation how that is implemented with guys in their experience and and how deep they used to go into games and how deep they go into games now it's going to be a puzzle to solve, but you know, I think the arms are out there to either way to get the job done and wins the games. Yeah, the J's

like I think in particular is a really interesting puzzle to put together because you're dealing with Scherzer who's 41. You got Shane Bieber now who's coming off Tommy John looked really good on Friday night. Their bullpen has been a disaster over the last month. Like a really bloated ERA. It has really not been good.

So you're juggling like health, age, Tommy John, a bullpen that's leaky, yet a team that's five games up on the American League East. So it just feels overly complicated, yet at the same time, you know, I'm curious how you think they could simplify this. Like how John Snyder, Pete Walker, in the front office, how they can simplify this to make the team feel and the bats feel like, okay, the arms are going to be there for you. Whether it's Bieber, Scherz, or Gosman, whatever rotation we're going to go with in terms of the bullpen, You know, you still got a month to do that. Do you feel confident there's enough time for them to figure this out,

relay the message to the rest of the team and say, we're good, come playoff time. Yeah, I think a month is plenty of time. And September is usually what, this is what's happening in September, usually. You're trying to shore up. You're trying to get the guys who maybe are banged up a little bit, everyone healthy. If you can get to a point where you have a lot of depth going into the playoffs,

I think you are put in a good position because the, the more opportunities for different guys to be the hero, the one that steps up, that tends to work out. But we've seen, you know, the Phillies made a good run a couple years ago, went real deep into the playoffs with a very leaky bullpen. One of the leakiest bullpins I've ever seen in a playoff grew, and they got the job done. They found ways to do it with enough arms. I think it's just having, try to get as many options as you can have ready to go for those last couple weeks of September, because obviously there's going to be pressure, you know, for the division. That's still going to be, you know, it's not a foregone conclusion at this point.

There's very few leads at this early in the game that you can say that for. But like, once you get closer, if you are able to not see a lot of red ink on your ledger here and you see a lot of guys that are available, that is something that is controllable. That is something you can focus on and getting everyone to peak after at the same time going into the playoffs is that next step. So those two things are as much as you can do, but getting everyone healthy and making sure that even if guys are struggling, they're still healthy and the stuff's still there.

It's just maybe decisions being made. You can deal with that. But what you can't deal with is, you know, a lot of guys that aren't 100%. With George Springer having the season that he's having and, you know, an OPS above 900, how much more important is that for the Jays come playoff time this time around? like a George Springer who's kind of like had this resurgence and is playing with a lot of confidence and is really contributing.

Does that bang the drum a little louder for them? I would say absolutely, especially with how his performance has been historically in the playoffs. He's played in big games. He's come through in big games. That is one thing. I think that's a major strength. And I think that a big reason that the Blue Jays are in the position they are in is because of the wealth of veteran presence and the wealth of experience.

and the wealth of experience in that clubhouse, even if it's guys who on paper you may say are past their prime, there is something to be said for having done it before because the playoffs are a, they're just a different beast. There is a nervousness and there is an anticipation and there's an excitement that doesn't just come during the game. It's all day before and it's all day after. And it's like that.

If you go deep, it's like that for a month. And they have the guys. I mean, I can't point in another team that has more of the guys who've done it in October and in November than the Blue Jays have right now, and I think that's something to hang your hat on. And George Springer is a huge part of that, and his resurgence has been massive for how the offensive turnaround has been this year, but just all around showing that, you know, you guys can get back on the horse, and we can be a force in the batters box that just wasn't there last year. It's a lot of the same guys, but it's a much different productive team. With Trevor May, and you look at, you know, the standings in the American League, you get the Tigers 78 and 55, the Jays are a half game back, 77 and 55. And then the Jays are four and a half up on Houston in terms of those top two seats in the American League.

And I think naturally, you know, in Toronto, we're still looking back on Boston and the Yankees and they have to play those two teams twice. All right, they each play them one more time the rest of the way. So there's still some jockeying of position within the division. but I'm curious, you know, as an outsider, Trevor, looking at this situation, if you're the, Jay, should you be looking forward? Like, should your priority be,

we got to just secure the top seat of the American League here because that would be massively beneficial, clearly, to avoid the wild card, and then everything's got to come through Toronto all the way into the World Series. I would say, you know, maybe the last couple years with this new playoff format and the way that that buy has kind of,

teams have been affected by it, it seems, or like, the way it kind of plays out, I would be hesitant. But in the unique case of the Blue Jays and figuring out this rotation and getting the bullpen going, I think rest and just being able to, being able to line up your pitching is such a valuable thing for them to be able to do. And so I would say, minimum, you need that one of those top two spots to get those to get that uh to get that space but if you can take that top spot and just make sure that you have home field advantage the whole way like they have played so well at home it's a massive advantage it's you know you have the entire country of canada behind you like there is something to be said for that so going going all out for that

and finishing really strong i think all of those things take care of themselves if you just go out and you're like we are still focused on winning each game the same way we're going to need to do it in the playoffs that will give you that seed that you need and that would i think be more beneficial for them than maybe other one or two seeds uh in the past outside of the blue jays organization is this the year a guy with the nickname big dumper wins an MVP and i'm talking about cal rally who just hit his 50th home run i it's looking good it is it is looking good i know it's tough I know it's tough for the Blue Jays fans to talk about Cal too much.

I know he likes hitting up there in Toronto, but like the guy has been incredible. I've been able to see him in person. I think I've seen, I've been to four games. I think I've seen five home runs. So maybe I'm a good luck charm. It doesn't seem like he needs one. But I think it would be a really cool thing for the game.

He's a catcher. There's just a lot of things going against his position and the types of things he needs to do to win an MVP. And if he were able to do it, the league that had Aaron Judge doing what he's doing, that would be one of the most impressive seasons of all time. And I got to say it, he still's got judge and stolen bases. I think that's a big, I think that's a big deal. If he gets, you know, I think he's in double digits now. If he gets up in the high teens, like, that might, that might steal the deal. I know. I'm, I'm coming

from left field here, but that's, I mean, a catcher with 15 stolen bases is crazy. Name big dumper? That's pretty impressive. Yeah. And, you know, like, what, your team does doesn't matter as much in baseball compared to other sports generally your team's got to be in the playoffs to win the MVP in the NFL or the NBA or the NHL but the fact that Seattle has been so

good you know the last couple of months and they're in the playoffs and they're likely going to hold on they're kind of chasing down Houston but they're going to make the playoffs like that seems substantial to me Trevor like it's not just a throwaway Mike Trout I'm so much better than everyone else in my team stinks year he's contributing to

a winner and once he gets closer to 60 home runs, which I think is going to happen based on what he's done the last two nights, and now he's at 50, it's going to get louder and louder and louder. Like, if he's chasing 60 into the last 7,8 games of the year, it's going to be all Cal Rale all the time, which is going to be

incredible theater. I fully agree. I think we, you know, I know we saw Aaron Judge break the AL record for home runs, but it's only 62. Right. Like, he would be threatening that if he's, if he's even threatening the record for home runs as a

catcher as a switch hitting catcher that catches he's not platooning either he's catching a lot with the way he handles his rotation, the way he receives he's defensively a very good catcher and then if they make the playoffs like we're

I think that is necessary but make the playoffs yeah you got to I mean there's there's really nothing else to be said there I think you're just weighing like Aaron Judge has to be hitting three I mean if he said 370 like that's that's tough to be but he has kind of come down to earth a little bit yeah so and just missed a little bit of time so i think that it's a much closer uh closer race than

than you would then most would have thought maybe two months ago absolutely and yeah judge is still judge but you got to give it up to what raleigh's doing out in seattle uh he's former mlb pitcher host of the mayday podcast Trevor may great catching up with you Trevor thank you for doing this man we'll do it again soon of course thanks guys you got it there he is uh Trevor May. Seasoned gamer, or just video game curious, this weekend gaming is the podcast for you. We break down the latest in the world of video games,

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