Max Scherzer and his agent, Scott Boras – because of course it’s Scott Boras – aren’t going to beat around the bush, they’re looking to get PAID this offseason.

While the baseball world anxiously awaits resolution on the Jon Lester contract situation, Boras and Scherzer are getting the word out to any owners looking to employ the 2013 American League Cy Young winner.

Their message is a simple one, all interested parties should be prepared to open their coin purse.

…and maybe steal someone else’s coin purse too.

Here’s the tweet from Jon Morosi of FoxSports.com:

As wild as $200+ million for a pitcher sounds, Scherzer is very likely to get exactly that this offseason.

Elite level starting pitching is at a premium in this year’s market and Scherzer is arguably the best of the bunch.

Once Jon Lester – who has reportedly received multiple $150+ million dollar offers – is off the market, the next best option after Scherzer is James Shields.

Shields is a very solid pitcher with a great track record, but he’ll also be 33-years-old on opening day and has nearly 2,000 big league innings on his arm.

It’s safe to assume that at least a few of the deep-pocketed teams that lose out on Lester may double-down to acquire Scherzer.

Scherzer turned down a six-year, $144 million offer from Detroit during spring training and gambled that he could repeat his Cy Young-caliber performance from 2013 and do even better in free agency.

He didn’t quite match the lofty numbers from the previous year, but you’d be hard-pressed to say he had anything other than a fantastic season.

Over the last three years, Scherzer has 55 wins, a 3.24 ERA, 1.134 WHIP, and a 723/179 K/BB ratio in 622.1 innings over 97 starts.

That’s been good enough for 16.9 WAR, which is roughly the same amount of WAR the Minnesota Twins have accumulated as a team in the same time span.

Needless to say, he’s been pretty dang good.

When (if?) Jon Lester finally makes a decision, all eyes will turn to Scherzer and, unlike Lester’s foray into free agency, teams already know exactly what it will take to land the right-hander.

The mystery will be trying to determine which team will hand him the keys to the Scrooge McDuck vault that he – and Scott Boras – are eargerly expecting.