I believe Scherzer was hell bent on becoming a FA just so he could do his job to help raise the bar for others, unless he got a very very good deal from the Tigers before. But Ilitch probably didn't want to pay him more than Verlander, or Cabrera, and as a result got butt hurt when a player dare reject his "goodwill". You don't say no to Mike Ilitch. Doesn't matter if you are future HOFer's like Max Scherzer, Sparky Anderson, or Sergei Fedorov.
So Mike made Dombrowski issue a press release to announce that negotiations broke off after they offered Max a huge deal. Before the season.
Classy as always, those Ilitches.