{"id":573285,"date":"2026-02-15T02:56:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T02:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/573285\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T02:56:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T02:56:33","slug":"david-lennon-mets-righthander-christian-scott-brings-healthy-attitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/573285\/","title":{"rendered":"David Lennon: Mets righthander Christian Scott brings healthy attitude"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. <\/p>\n

Christian Scott was the Mets\u2019 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. <\/p>\n

But two years can be an eternity in baseball, and the landscape has changed dramatically since Scott needed Tommy John surgery<\/a> nine starts into his rookie season. The Mets flipped nearly all of Scott\u2019s prospect peers and some of his closest buddies while he rehabbed \u2014 Mike Vasil (White Sox), Blade Tidwell (Giants), Dom Hamel (Yankees) \u2014 and former University of Florida teammate Brandon Sproat was the last out the door in January, shipped to Milwaukee in the trade for Freddy Peralta. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou know how the business works,\u201d Scott told Newsday. \u201cIt would be crazy if everybody stayed in one organization their whole career.\u201d <\/p>\n

But Scott, 26, is still here, and that\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s been easy to overlook, as everyone was obsessed the past year with the meteoric rises of Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong<\/a>. But Scott is the OG of these young guns, the gotta-have-him Mets phenom from the team\u2019s magical \u201924 season, and most would venture to say his Tommy John rehab was a chance for him to improve more than simply recover. <\/p>\n

Take Friday, for instance. Scott was camped at the backstop with Sean Manaea to watch Tong pitch live batting practice, angling for a coach\u2019s-eye view of the performance. The others joining them? Bo Bichette and Jorge Polanco, chatting between their turns in the box. <\/p>\n

Scott\u2019s primary weapon is a four-seam fastball that ranges from 94 to 97 mph to go with a slider, sweeper and changeup. He\u2019s 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\u2019s back to throwing live BPs and should be on schedule to start the season, it\u2019s not a stretch to suggest this is going to be the best version of Scott anyone has seen. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a relentless work ethic,\u201d Mets senior vice president of player development Andy Green told Newsday. \u201cHe\u2019s an A-plus teammate. It\u2019s real stuff, and all his stuff looks how you want it to right now considering all he\u2019s been through. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll get built up probably a little bit more slowly than other starters considering where he\u2019s coming from. But he looks great, and he\u2019s 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\u00a01\u20443 innings for Syracuse. Facing the Rays at Tropicana Field<\/a>, Scott whiffed six through 6\u00a02\u20443 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. <\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust finding new ways to get people out,\u201d Scott said. \u201cI 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?\u201d <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust because [Tommy John] surgery is common doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t need an uncanny amount of resilience to bounce back from that type of adversity,\u201d Green said. \u201cThat stuff\u2019s hard \u2014 being out of the fight, being isolated in rehab. It\u2019s a mentally draining thing for every person who goes through it. He\u2019s handled it really, really well, which we would have anticipated because of the character that he has. I think that\u2019s why the stuff is back exactly like we like to see it. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just going to continue to improve. Guys like him just keep getting better.\u201d <\/p>\n

Because time has basically stood still for Scott while the Mets \u2014 and the next generation of pitching prospects \u2014 have moved forward, I asked him if there was a sense of making up for his lost place in line. He smiled. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not really worried about what spot in the rotation I am or whatever ranking I am,\u201d Scott said. \u201cJust focus on being healthy. I know that when my stuff\u2019s on and I\u2019m 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

Finally, he\u2019ll get that chance again. And maybe even face some of those former Mets prospects along the way.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball’s Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. Christian Scott was the Mets\u2019 fifth-ranked prospect before his major-league debut in 2024, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,4,61,28494],"class_list":["post-573285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-oin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116072403031925840","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}