PORT ST. LUCIE — When 46 different players threw a pitch for the Mets last season, the team proved an old adage to be correct: You really can never have enough pitching.
As of Wednesday, every pitcher that has thrown a live bullpen has come through healthy. While it’s still fairly early in camp, it’s a good sign.
“So far, it’s positive news,” manager Carlos Mendoza said Wednesday at Clover Park. “Everybody is bouncing back [and] continues to be on their progressions… Everybody is in a good place.”
Needing 17 different pitchers to start games (as either starters or openers) illustrated just how important it is to have starting pitching depth. When the starting pitching was at its worst last summer, president of baseball operations David Stearns said he realized just how important it is to develop your own starting pitching depth.
That’s where Christian Scott and Jonah Tong come into play. The two homegrown right-handers might someday be more than depth starters, but with six other healthy starters in camp this spring and only one of them — Nolan McLean — having any minor league options, Scott and Tong are slated for depth roles. The Mets already know what they can do, but the question is whether or not they can do it over the course of a full season.
Scott made his big league debut in 2024, but was shut down after just nine starts because of a partially-torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. It was repaired that fall, leading the Mets to hold him out of game action in 2025. Coming into camp, the club initially penciled him in for a slow progression, but his elbow has been healthy enough to get him on a normal schedule.
The 26-year-old University of Florida product has thrown to hitters about 8-9 times since his surgery, including a two-inning live bullpen in camp earlier this week.
“It’s all about health, right? He looks healthy,” Mendoza said. “I think he was up to 95, and the cutter is a pitch now that looks really good again. We’ve got to build him up, but it was good to see him back out there on the mound, competing and being himself.”
Like many pitchers in camp, Scott has added a cutter to the mix. A converted college reliever, Scott has worked for years to expand his arsenal, and the cutter gives him another pitch to throw to left-handed hitters, with the goal of getting more ground-ball outs.
Lefties hit .333 with a .942 OPS, five home runs and six doubles off of Scott in 2024.
“That was kind of the goal coming into the rehab process,” Scott said. “I knew what I did [well] and I knew what I really needed to work on. Being able to up those usages and being able to get outs when I need to get outs, and being able to get ground balls when I need to get ground balls is important.”
Scott’s received good feedback from Juan Soto and Marcus Semien after his first two-inning live BP, which should be a confidence boost for just about anyone. But Scott has never lacked confidence. He’s always been very self-assured, even when he was making the switch from a reliever to a starter.
Other pitchers had told him that he probably wouldn’t be able to sleep the night before his Major League debut, but that wasn’t the case for him. When Scott was called up to make his first start in front of a large group of friends and family at Tropicana Field in May 2024, he said he “slept like a baby.”
The surgery and the time off did little to change anything about Scott other than his elbow. He’s still the same pitcher who dances in front of his locker before starts and is rarely rattled.
“I feel like I can get anybody out at this level if my stuff is on and I’m competing in the strike zone,” Scott said. “Now I’m obviously doing that while being healthy at the same time.”
The Mets don’t anticipate Scott needing a rehab assignment out of spring training. He’ll start the season on time, whether it’s in the big leagues or in Syracuse, though if everyone stays healthy, he’s likely ticketed for Triple-A. The same goes for Tong, as well as Justin Hagenman and Brandon Waddell, who are stretching out to start but can come out of the bullpen as well.
Tobias Myers is also stretching out to start this spring, even though the Mets plan to use him mostly out of the bullpen. The club likes the idea of having a true long reliever who can open games when needed.
“We want to build him up as a starter, and hopefully everybody is healthy [coming out of camp],” Mendoza said. “There’s a long way to go, and we’ll have to make some adjustments. If we decide to put him in the bullpen, he’s definitely going to be a multiple-inning guy.”
The Mets set a record using 46 different arms last season, a new league record. This year, they’re counting on their youth and versatility to limit that number.
