Scherzer wants midseason WBC: This early is 'rolling the dice with my arm'

New York Mets ace Max Scherzer opted to stay out of the World Baseball Classic this year but would seemingly consider representing the United States if the tournament was held midseason.

"I think it would be a good idea," the three-time Cy Young winner said of bumping the WBC to Major League Baseball's All-Star break, according to John Harper of SNY. "You would get more pitchers participating and more importantly, I think it would be more exciting for the fans. You'd actually have starters built up, you wouldn't have guys on pitch counts. You'd actually have real guys going out and it would be a real game."

Scherzer's comments come in the midst of the WBC's pool play, with the American pitching staff struggling to record outs, most recently losing 11-5 to rival Mexico. Team USA used eight different pitchers in the drubbing, starting with Nick Martinez.

"I'm not ready to step into quasi-playoff games right now," Scherzer continued. "I do that, I'm really rolling the dice with my arm.

"It's hard enough to try and make 33 starts, throw 200 innings with the normal ramp-up in spring. If I go out there and try to do too much, too early, it could really affect me throughout the season."

The 38-year-old eight-time All-Star is coming off an injury-shortened 2022 campaign, but he was expectedly dominant when on the mound, authoring a 2.29 ERA and 2.62 FIP over 145 1/3 innings.

So far this spring, Scherzer has made two outings and thrown 4 2/3 innings.