Rosenthal: To boost Mets and sustain greatness, Max Scherzer needs to adjust to

If I didn’t know better, I’d almost think Max Scherzer was experiencing the baseball version of a mid-life crisis.

Scherzer being Scherzer, one of the great pitchers of our generation, I will not go that far, trusting he will figure all of this out. The pitch clock. The sticky stuff. Even the physical part, though no one can be sure how his body will hold up, considering he turns 39 on July 27.

This much is clear: Scherzer needs to get it together, or the $358 million Mets will be in quite a predicament. As it stands, the possibility of him getting suspended 10 games for Wednesday’s Rosin-a-rama at Dodger Stadium further compromises a rotation that already is without José Quintana and Carlos Carrasco, and still waiting for its other $43 million ace, Justin Verlander, to return from injury.

Kodai Senga, 30, is practically the Mets’ last man standing, which is not exactly the outcome anyone expected after the New York Post reported his physical with the team was “iffy.” Scherzer, who twice dealt with oblique/side issues last season, working 145 1/3 innings, his lowest total for a full campaign, was supposed to pitch Sunday, but his start was pushed back to Wednesday due to lingering soreness in his scapula. He looked fine against the Dodgers, pitching three scoreless innings. But then, he was ejected for using an illegal foreign substance.

The heated aftermath featured Scherzer and his agent, Scott Boras, on one side, umpire Phil Cuzzi and crew chief Dan Bellino on the other. Scherzer said he kept telling the umps his hand and glove were sticky only because of sweat and rosin. He swore on his kids’ lives he used nothing illegal. He told reporters, “I’d have to be an absolute idiot to try to do anything,” after he already had been checked and warned twice.

Here’s Scherzer’s problem, even if, as he said, a league official after the third inning witnessed him washing his hands with alcohol underneath the stands: A memo the league sent to all 30 clubs in spring training, detailing a more aggressive crackdown on sticky stuff, made clear that rosin in certain instances would qualify as an illegal substance.

Scherzer said after he washed his hand, he applied rosin and grabbed sweat before going back out to the mound. The only approved rosin bag, however, is the one umpires inspect before the game and is brought by the game compliance officer to the mound. Any rosin Scherzer used in the tunnel would not have been approved.

“Please keep in mind that player use of rosin always must be consistent with the requirements and expectations of the Official Baseball Rules,” the memo said. “When used excessively or otherwise misapplied, i.e. the gloves or other parts of the uniform, rosin may be determined by the umpires to be a prohibited foreign substance, the use of which may subject a player to ejection and discipline.”

As The Athletic’s Jayson Stark reported last month, the memo also said umpires’ inspections…