David Lennon: Mets' Christian Scott brings healthy attitude on road back from Tommy John surgery
Mets pitcher Christian Scott during a spring training workout on Wednesday in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Christian Scott was the Mets’ fifth-ranked prospect before his major-league debut in 2024, the most highly regarded pitcher of what many believed to be an impressive stockpile of arms.
But two years can be an eternity in baseball, and the landscape has changed dramatically since Scott needed Tommy John surgery nine starts into his rookie season. The Mets flipped nearly all of Scott’s prospect peers and some of his closest buddies while he rehabbed — Mike Vasil (White Sox), Blade Tidwell (Giants), Dom Hamel (Giants) — and former University of Florida teammate Brandon Sproat was the last out the door in January, shipped to Chicago’s South Side in the trade for centerfielder Luis Robert Jr.
“You know how the business works,” Scott told Newsday. “It would be crazy if everybody stayed in one organization their whole career.”
But Scott, 26, is still here, and that’s a good thing for the Mets, who have re-stacked their pitching deck and now have a very interesting wild card in the 6-4 righthander.
He’s been easy to overlook, as everyone was obsessed the past year with the meteoric rises of Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong. But Scott is the OG of these young guns, the gotta-have-him Mets phenom from the team’s magical ’24 season, and most would venture to say his Tommy John rehab was a chance for him to improve more than simply recover.
Take Friday, for instance. Scott was camped at the backstop with Sean Manaea to watch Tong pitch live batting practice, angling for a coach’s-eye view of the performance. The others joining them? Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco, chatting between their turns in the box.
Scott’s primary weapon is a four-seam fastball that ranges from 94 to 97 mph to go with a slider, sweeper and changeup. He’s a sponge for information, and the time away from active mound duty for the Mets has given him the chance to observe and assimilate. Now that he’s back to throwing live BPs and should be on schedule to start the season, it’s not a stretch to suggest this is going to be the best version of Scott anyone has seen.
“He’s got a relentless work ethic,” Mets senior vice president of player development Andy Green told Newsday. “He’s an A-plus teammate. It’s real stuff, and all his stuff looks how you want it to right now considering all he’s been through.
“He’ll get built up probably a little bit more slowly than other starters considering where he’s coming from. But he looks great, and he’s a guy that we fully expect to get meaningful innings for us in the big leagues and make meaningful starts. As for when that occurs, I think we got the spring to figure that out.”
Scott made his Mets debut in May 2024 to help shoulder the stress of a rotation that was facing 26 games in 27 days, as well as the fact that he was blowtorching his way through Triple-A, going 3-0 with a 3.20 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 25 1⁄3 innings for Syracuse. Facing the Rays at Tropicana Field, Scott whiffed six through 6 2⁄3 innings in a 3-1 loss and notched three quality starts in his first four (3.97 ERA). After his July 21 start in Miami, however, Scott complained of elbow pain and needed a UCL repair.
Now that he’s moved beyond rehab, Scott feels stronger than before, thanks to the extra sessions in the weight room, with the hope that could lead to an uptick in velocity. His arsenal has expanded, too, as Scott is now working on a kick-change and cutter.
“Just finding new ways to get people out,” Scott said. “I know I struggled with getting lefties out at a consistent rate when I was in the big leagues last time, so we kind of used the rehab process to [plan for] how can we do that at a higher level?”
As his inevitable return to the majors draws closer, Scott also has the advantage of forging through the demands of a lengthy Tommy John surgery rehab and being confident in the knowledge that he made it out the other side.
“Just because [Tommy John] surgery is common doesn’t mean you don’t need an uncanny amount of resilience to bounce back from that type of adversity,” Green said. “That stuff’s hard — being out of the fight, being isolated in rehab. It’s a mentally draining thing for every person who goes through it. He’s handled it really, really well, which we would have anticipated because of the character that he has. I think that’s why the stuff is back exactly like we like to see it.
“He’s just going to continue to improve. Guys like him just keep getting better.”
Because time has basically stood still for Scott while the Mets — and the next generation of pitching prospects — have moved forward, I asked him if there was a sense of making up for his lost place in line. He smiled.
“I’m not really worried about what spot in the rotation I am or whatever ranking I am,” Scott said. “Just focus on being healthy. I know that when my stuff’s on and I’m filling up the strike zone, I can get anybody out. I feel like if I can do that on a consistent basis, I can help this team win a lot of games.”
Finally, he’ll get that chance again. And maybe even face some of those former Mets prospects along the way.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
