Opinion: Scherzer's Ejection Highlights Grey Area In MLB Sticky Check Rules

By Lily Belcher

Mets ace Max Scherzer is the first pitcher to face a ten-game suspension for violating MLB’s sticky substance rules this year after being caught with a sticky glove Wednesday night. Phil Cuzzi conducted the routine “sticky check” where the umpire is required to stare deeply into the pitcher’s eyes as he strokes his hands following the inning.

Okay, maybe staring deeply into their eyes part isn’t required but it happens.

Following his second inning sticky check, Cuzzi asked the right-hander to wash his hands with alcohol after feeling a sticky substance on his hands. After the third inning, Scherzer was asked to switch gloves. And during the fourth inning check, Scherzer was ejected, prompting an animated, but ultimately futile objection by the pitcher.

“He said my hand’s too sticky, and I said ‘I swear on my kid’s life I’m not using anything else. This is sweat and rosin,’” explained Scherzer after the game.

However, the sweat and rosin combination allows pitchers to get the same grip and spin on the ball as foreign substances.

The 2021 rule was put in place to eliminate the use of a foreign substance called “spider tack,” but was extended to similar substances in a 2023 memo. According to baseball columnist John Harper, the 2023 memo notes that excessive use of rosin may be considered an illegal substance.

Scherzer is facing a 10-game suspension, meaning he will likely miss two starts for the violation.

During the 2021 scandal, Scherzer was an adamant voice against the use of sticky stuff, maintaining he never and will never use foreign substances. Now, while he is maintaining he’s not using spider tack or other external substances, his use of sweat and rosin may be one attempt to get around the new rules.

“The level of stickiness on his hand was much worse than it was even in the initial inspection that had taken place two innings prior,” said crew chief Dan Bellino.

Another thing to note is that Cuzzi is responsible for the only three ejections for supposed sticky substance violations. His prior two ejections were in the summer of 2021, catching Mariners pitcher Hector Santiago and Diamondbacks Caleb Smith. Both pitchers argued they were only using rosin as well.

Scherzer’s ejection highlights a significant grey area in the sticky stuff rules. Pitchers regularly use rosin on the mound and summer, afternoon baseball games are, without fail, going to lead to sweaty hands. So, it seems difficult to enforce sweat and rosin as an illegal substance, but Phil Cuzzi is single handedly leading the charge. And, his fellow umpires don’t seem to be cracking down as hard.

Yankees starter Domingo Germán was checked by crew chief James Hoye in a game against the Twins on April 16. Germán’s hands were reportedly sticky with rosin, but he was only asked to wash his hands. And then it happened again the following inning.

Lip readers say that Hoye was saying something like “I told you to wipe it off,” but Germán evaded an ejection and took the mound the following inning. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was the only one to face a punishment that game after objecting to the opposing pitcher being allowed to remain in the game while using a sticky sweat and rosin combination.

Now, we don’t know how sticky Germán’s hands were compared to Scherzer (maybe someone should develop a quantifiable “stickiness scale” for umpires). But, if Phil Cuzzi is the only umpire who can truly assess a sticky substance violation, he might have to host a class for umpires so they can at least consistently eject and suspend pitchers for using the rosin provided by MLB.