PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. — While the baseball world wonders where and when Max Scherzer will sign, his old general manager offered this prediction: not Detroit.
“I would say no, probably not,” Dave Dombrowski, also the Tigers’ president, said Thursday at the Major League Baseball owners’ meetings when The Post asked him if he thought he would re-sign the stud right-hander.
Scherzer, 30, excelled in five seasons for the Tigers after going from Arizona to Detroit in the three-way trade that also sent Curtis Granderson to the Yankees on Dec. 8, 2009. Last spring, Scherzer and his agent Scott Boras turned down a six-year, $144-million extension from Detroit, an unsurprising decision given Boras’ preference to take his clients into free agency.
The Tigers acquired David Price from Tampa Bay in a trade last July — Price will be eligible for free agency after the 2015 campaign — and, this winter, they dealt for the Yankees’ Shane Greene and Cincinnati’s Alfredo Simon.
“We’ve been in a situation where we’re pretty well set with our starting pitching,” Dombrowski said. “We’ve got five starters that we’re comfortable [with]. I guess you never tell what happens, but we’re not in any type of active pursuit of any other pitching right now.”
Of course, the Tigers, led by owner Mike Ilitch, have signed many of Boras’ clients late in the offseason — including Prince Fielder, Magglio Ordonez and Ivan Rodriguez — after they appeared to be all set.
Asked whether he was surprised that Scherzer remained unsigned, Dombrowski said, “I can’t say I’m surprised or not. He’s a good pitcher. Scott has signed a lot of guys late. That has happened. So I can’t say I’m completely shocked.”
MLB officials are negotiating with the Players Association to introduce some pace-of-play changes into the 2015 major league season. There is some optimism that some of the more moderate tweaks — like installing a clock to ensure teams honor the two-minute, five-second break between innings, or 2:30 for a pitching change — could be enacted. The 20-second pitch clock utilized in the Arizona Fall League likely will take more time to reach the big leagues, though it will be installed at the Double-A and Triple-A level this coming year.
Baseball announced the 2016 All-Star Game would be played in San Diego. With the 2015 Midsummer Classic set for Cincinnati, 2016 will mark the second straight year in an NL city — problematic given that the winner of the game gets home-field advantage for the World Series. Baseball also scheduled such a pattern in 2006 (Pittsburgh) and 2007 (San Francisco).
“We need to pick the locales to showcase our game,” commissioner-elect Rob Manfred said. “It’s a huge event for us.”
Manfred, who will replace the retiring Selig on Jan. 25, announced Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner will be one of eight members on his Executive Council, a significant step up in MLB involvement for Steinbrenner.