It feels like Christian Scott has become the biggest NY Mets X-factor

It can take one little update for things to drastically change with a team. In a year where there have been plenty of negative feelings about the New York Mets, the constant positive is what lies ahead. This includes the recent update on injured pitcher Christian Scott who sounds ready to fight this spring for a roster spot.

Out for all of last season with Tommy John surgery, Scott is an outside candidate to make the team out of spring training. Unlikely to get traded because of the injury, his place with the organization and their belief in him should play a role in many of their offseason decisions. We can only be so lucky as to have a rotation featuring him, Nolan McLean, Brandon Sproat, and Jonah Tong in the near future. Someone will be left behind.

Scott is a somewhat forgotten man in the team’s future plans. Less than 100 total innings above the Double-A level with 9 starts each in Triple-A and the majors in 2024, he’s already approaching his 27th birthday in June of next season. He’s definitely going to be in the mix for an opportunity in 2026. How much faith the Mets have in him should play a big role in exactly how they handle the offseason.

Christian Scott is the X-factor of the offseason and coming year for the Mets

Buy into Scott fully and the Mets have less of a reason to hold onto Brandon Sproat and/or Jonah Tong. Any doubts whatsoever and it might be more difficult to part with them short of anything that brings in an ace like Tarik Skubal.

Scott’s brief major league tenure in 2024 resulted in a 4.56 ERA performance with a fastball dominant approach. He threw a few too many home runs, giving up 8 in his 47.1 innings.

His brief time with the Mets failed to include any flashes of greatness with his MLB debut versus the Tampa Bay Rays being both his longest and most effective outing. He logged 6.2 innings while allowing a single earned run. Scott spread out his runs allowed pretty evenly throughout the 9 starts, giving up a home run in 7 of them with a pair in his penultimate appearance. He never managed to earn a win, the Mets going just 2-7 in games he started for them.

It’s fair to suggest Scott could use a full season in the minors before deploying him in the majors. This coming year is both a rehab and tryout for a more extended look in the majors. If he had by some miracle been able to be ready at the start of the 2025 season, there’s a good chance he would have been viewed as depth rather than someone with an assured role in the rotation.

A question the Mets may have lingering about Scott not too far down the road is whether or not starting is actually the right thing for him. He didn’t begin to start regularly in the minors until 2023 when he made 19 starts. Another 18 combined in the majors and minors led to the injury that knocked him aside for a year. In college, he made just 5 starts and another 50 relief appearances.

If there is a young stud starter who might be a fit to pitch out of the bullpen this coming year, Scott could be it. This would allow him the chance to slowly brace for a larger role by 2027, using the 2026 season to prove he’s healthy and work up his strength again. Considering the Mets may already have a crowded rotation and will inevitably need some relief help, this might be the most sensible approach. Handing him 100+ innings doesn’t make much sense when he has yet to do it before. Start him slowly in the minors and maybe milk out a few starts at the big league level mid-year. By the end of the season, if he has gas in the bank, a move to the bullpen might be the best use.