A familiar face took the mound as an experiment in Queens. After a slow start from former All-Star David Peterson in 2026, the Mets turned to former top prospect Christian Scott. The 26-year-old flamethrower hadn\u2019t seen major league action since 2024.<\/p>\n
During his brief stint that season, Scott showed promise, tallying 39 strikeouts across nine starts with a 4.56 ERA. His momentum ended abruptly July 21, when he felt shoulder discomfort during a start against the Marlins. What initially required a 15-day injured list stint was later upgraded to season-ending Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n
The right-hander returned in 2026 and stood out in spring training, touching 99 mph on his fastball while striking out four over three innings. He finished the spring with a 4.50 ERA and eight strikeouts across six innings.<\/p>\n
In Triple-A, Scott appeared in three games, allowing seven runs in his first start before rebounding with two strong outings, surrendering just two runs over 10 innings.<\/p>\n
Given an opportunity to provide the Mets with a much-needed back-end starter, Scott struggled under the lights at Citi Field.<\/p>\n
Scott\u2019s first test came against Byron Buxton, whom he struck out swinging in a four-pitch battle, topping out at 96 mph. What appeared to be a promising beginning quickly unraveled. Scott walked four batters in the first inning, one of which led to a run for the Twins.<\/p>\n
He escaped further damage, allowing just one run, but 20 of his first 33 pitches missed the strike zone.<\/p>\n
With a 3-1 lead in the second inning, Scott immediately walked Brooks Lee \u2014 his fifth walk of the outing. His night ended shortly after. Scott issued a balk that advanced Lee, then hit Buxton with a pitch, prompting a stare from the Twins center fielder as he took first base.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t have command,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said. \u201cHe couldn\u2019t throw the ball over the plate. The velocity was there, but he couldn\u2019t find the strike zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott\u2019s 2026 debut line: 1 1\/3 innings, five walks, one run allowed and one hit batter.<\/p>\n
He became just the third pitcher in Mets history to post a stat line of two or fewer innings with five or more walks and a hit-by-pitch, joining Nolan Ryan and Juan Berenguer. It marked the 56th occurrence in MLB history and the first since 2021.<\/p>\n
Despite the outing, Mendoza said Scott will receive another opportunity, emphasizing the right-hander remains an important piece for the Mets.<\/p>\n
Tobias Myers followed in relief, tossing 2 1\/3 innings with three strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 2.60.<\/p>\n
Now, the Mets face a looming question: Who will fill the No. 5 spot in the rotation?<\/p>\n
Should they give Scott another chance? Move Peterson back into the rotation? Kodai Senga is expected to start Saturday against the Rockies, leaving two primary options behind him: Myers and Sean Manaea. Both have excelled in long relief roles, but with an opening in the rotation, the Mets may need to reconsider their plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A familiar face took the mound as an experiment in Queens. After a slow start from former All-Star David Peterson in 2026, the Mets turned to former top prospect Christian Scott. The 26-year-old flamethrower hadn\u2019t seen major league action since 2024. During his brief stint that season, Scott showed promise, tallying 39 strikeouts across nine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5548,"featured_media":120231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[28476,1332,6456,28490],"class_list":["post-120228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mets","tag-christian-scott","tag-david-peterson","tag-kodai-senga","tag-tobias-myers"],"modified_by":"Jason Petrucci","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120228"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120279,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120228\/revisions\/120279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}