Max Scherzer's relationship with MLB makes ejection more complex

As the accused party, Max Scherzer offered about as compelling a defense as anyone on his side could ever hope for. He was passionate, he was patient, he repeatedly explained that he followed the umpires’ instructions and even washed his hands in front of an MLB official.

He went so far as to say he told umpire Phil Cuzzi that he swore “on the lives of my children” that he didn’t do anything with the baseball that could be construed as cheating.

Yet that didn’t keep Cuzzi from ejecting Scherzer before the bottom of the fourth inning at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.

But it convinced me. At least in the moment.

Look, it’s hard not to love everything about Scherzer. His intensity, his work ethic, his leadership. He had as much to do with changing the Mets’ clubhouse culture last year as Buck Showalter, and some of that would seem to come from personal integrity.

As such, I was ready to make this all about Cuzzi appointing himself as the sheriff determined to enforce MLB’s crackdown on sticky substances, since he is the only umpire to have thrown pitchers out for being in violation of the three-year old rule.

But then I read the quotes from home plate umpire Dan Bellino, who joined Cuzzi in examining Scherzer’s hands and glove during the fourth inning in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

And they are persuasive in their own right.

“As far as stickiness,” Bellino told a pool reporter, “this was the stickiest that it has been since I’ve been inspecting hands, which now goes back three seasons. It was so sticky that when we touched his hand, our fingers were sticking to his hand.

“It was far more than we have ever seen before on a pitcher in live action and we know the repercussions of removing a pitcher from the game. This is clearly something that went too far. It went over the line.”

It’s hard for me to believe he’d lie to that extreme.

I just don’t think an umpire is going to make up stuff like that. In fact, I’ve talked to umpires who say they hate having to check pitchers’ hands between innings and they certainly aren’t looking to throw anyone out of a game for something like that.

But let’s be honest: because it’s Scherzer this is complicated.

MLB bigwigs have an intense dislike for him because he was such a hard-liner during last year’s labor negotiations, reportedly screaming at them at times during meetings as part of the negotiating committee.

And Scherzer has hard feelings as well toward MLB, convinced that Rob Manfred and his people never negotiated in good faith during the lockout. The three-time Cy Young Award winner even voted no on the proposal that the players’ side finally accepted to end the lockout last March.

People on both sides say it’s an ugly relationship. But even if MLB would enjoy seeing Scherzer taken down over something like this, it would still seem to be quite a conspiratorial leap to believe the umpires have just been looking for enough of a reason to bust him.

At the same time, Scherzer’s less-than-dominant first three starts this season could be seen as reason for an older pitcher to look for a little more edge. He said he washed his hands with alcohol to get the rosin off, but MLB makes the point that using alcohol with rosin creates a stickiness, which is illegal.

I find it hard to believe he’d go there, and it’s worth noting that Scherzer’s spin rates on his fastball and slider, which tend to be higher when a pitcher uses sticky stuff to get a better grip, were essentially the same as his other starts this season.

So what should we take from all this?

Well, for starters I don’t think it’s enough for an umpire to only have to speak to a pool reporter on a day like this. Both Bellino and Cuzzi should have been required to show up at a press conference and answer questions from reporters in front of TV cameras, just as Scherzer did.

That at least would leave no doubt about the tone, the body language, and anything else that might provide a more complete picture as to the motives and believability.

As it is, MLB has shielded its umpires for way too long. Now the replay system has taken much of the burden from them, but they should still be accountable any time a non-replay call is in question.

Furthermore, MLB has left itself open to criticism over this sticky-stuff crackdown. Once it outlawed the use of pine tar and sun screen and Spider Tack, the powers-that-be were supposed to come up with a substance that gave pitchers some grip and was agreeable to all parties.

That or MLB was going to look into developing a tackier ball, such as the one used in Japan. Instead, this is all up to the umpires to decide what’s too sticky and what’s not.

In this case, it’s hard to say why Scherzer didn’t get more of a benefit of the doubt, after all he’s done in this game, unless the umpires were absolutely convinced he was doing something sketchy with the ball.

And right or wrong, because MLB seems unlikely to bend here, it’s hard to see how Scherzer will avoid the 10-game suspension that was written into the rules with the new sticky-stuff guidelines.

For a team with plenty of pitching problems already, that’s going to hurt.

And right now, because of the shadowy nature of this case, the pain this will cause the Mets is about the only absolute here.