Nationals ace Max Scherzer departed his final tune-up for the playoffs Saturday night due to an issue in his hamstring, surely freaking out every Nationals fan around. He had an MRI and the news is mostly good, but there's cause for concern. 

"[The MRI] showed exactly what we thought. Nothing major. More of a tool to help know we need to treat it," Scherzer told the Washington Post. "…The good news thing about this is, I can walk and run around on this. It's not a major strain or anything, where it's debilitating. So I'm pretty upbeat and positive about going forward here."

Later in the Post article, however, Scherzer refused to commit to being able to pitch in the NLDS against the Cubs. That means his status is questionable and there's a chance he won't, so this is certainly a storyline to watch. 

Scherzer finishes the 2017 season 16-6 with a 2.51 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 268 strikeouts and 200 2/3 innings pitched. He's likely to win his second straight NL Cy Young, giving him three Cy Youngs total. There's little question he's one of the elite postseason arms, so it would be a crushing blow to the Nationals hopes of knocking off the defending champion Cubs if he was unable to start or ended up leaving a start in the early innings with the hamstring injury. 

The Nationals do have worthy alternatives to start Game 1 without Scherzer, of course, in Stephen Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez, both of whom are having ace-like seasons in their own right. The depth issue is where things get fuzzy without Scherzer. Check out how things line up with him and without him: 

With Scherzer:

Game 1: Scherzer
Game 2: Strasburg
Game 3: Gonzalez
Game 4: Tanner Roark
Game 5: Scherzer

That feels pretty stellar. 

Without Scherzer:

Game 1: Strasburg
Game 2: Gonzalez
Game 3: Roark
Game 4: Strasburg on short rest or Edwin Jackson
Game 5: Strasburg or Gonzalez

Game 4 would certainly be a problem area for the Nationals, especially if they were down two games to one. 

The best guess here is Scherzer is able to start Game 1 and we'll have forgotten about this come Friday, but it's definitely a situation worth monitoring.