Max Scherzer Explains How Piano Saved His MLB Career to Avoid Retirement After Injury

After dealing with a right thumb issue for years that once had him contemplating retirement, Toronto Blue Jays veteran starting pitcher Max Scherzer found a solution in a unique way.

Scherzer explained to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal that playing the piano helped him relieve the discomfort in his thumb and get back to pitching like the future Hall of Famer that he is.

"When you're playing different keys and notes and chords, your hands are in very unique positions. It makes you really work through your fingertips," Scherzer said. "By working those muscles in my hand, it got my fingers, quote-unquote, stronger. All of a sudden, that alleviated the thumb pain."

Scherzer revealed that he was "extremely close" to walking away from baseball during the first half of the 2025 season while his thumb issue continued to linger. He felt that the problem had led to the injuries that sidelined him during the 2023 and 2024 campaigns. He was placed on the injured list last season with right thumb inflammation, and treatments like needling and cortisone shots weren't helping.

Scherzer turned to the keys when he started teaching his four children how to play piano shortly before the All-Star break. He had basic knowledge from when his mother, Jan, had him take piano lessons when he was a child. While he admitted, "Obviously, I was never any good," he started to feel relief in his thumb almost immediately, and he continued honing his skills by watching YouTube tutorials of popular songs.

The 41-year-old began requesting to play the piano at the hotels the Blue Jays were staying at during road trips. He eventually bought his own keyboard to play at a low volume in his room.

It took a while for Scherzer's improvements to show up on the stat sheet, but he made three postseason starts for Toronto and produced a 3.77 ERA over 14.1 innings pitched. He started Game 7 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers and allowed one run in 4.1 innings before the Blue Jays lost 5-4 in 11 innings.

"This is why I genuinely love Max so much," said former Blue Jays pitcher Chris Bassitt, who is now with the Baltimore Orioles and also was a teammate of Scherzer's with the New York Mets in 2022. "It would have been very, very easy for me to be like, all right, you're a no-doubt Hall of Famer, you've had an unbelievable career. And just through unfortunate events where somehow your thumb kind of gave out on you, you can ride off into the sunset. But he was flipping over every single stone to figure out something that was going to help him."

Scherzer's newfound love for the piano led to some good-natured ribbing from his teammates, but he doesn't mind at all while his thumb continues to feel better.

"It's only stupid if this doesn't work," Scherzer said. "It works, so it can't be stupid."