A potential wild card for the Mets rotation
Also - Carlos Beltrán could be joining Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza in Cooperstown today as the Hall of Fame ballot is revealed
What’s up with the Mets? 🍎
Carlos Beltran will learn tonight if he has been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame as part of this year’s class (NY Post)
Rumor Mill 💨
Veteran Miguel Andujar has several teams vying for his services (NY Post)
The Cardinals would like resolution on a potential Brendan Donovan trade prior to the start of spring training (St. Louis Post Dispatch)
What I’m Reading 📰
Don’t hate on the Dodgers for perfecting an imperfect system (Athletic)
The Mets signing of Bo Bichette last week reportedly left their rivals in Philadelphia livid (NY Post)
In a bonus edition of the Just Mets Podcast (Patreon only), Rich and Andrew discussed what their Hall of Fame ballots would look like if they had a vote. Watch the preview above and subscribe to our Patreon for the full episode!
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Christian Scott feels like the wild card of the Mets pitching staff ✍️
We keep saying it around here because it was, by far, the Mets’ biggest problem in 2025 - the Mets have to address their starting pitching.
The issue, of course, is that nothing at all has been done to address it.
The catchphrase around these parts this winter has been run prevention, though for all the strays exiled Mets like Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, and Jeff McNeil have caught for their defense this winter, it’s also certainly fair to point out that the Mets’ run prevention would have been significantly better in 2025 if the pitching staff weren’t consistently giving up rockets to the gap, surrendering nearly four walks a game, and not giving the club more than five, four, or sometimes even three innings at most.
RHP Nolan McLean is widely expected to build on his late-season dominance and blossom into this team’s ace for years to come, and he’s largely exempt from the concerns about this staff.
But beyond him, there aren’t any sure things at the moment.
Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea, Kodai Senga, and David Peterson all had spurts of success in 2025, but none of the four exhibited enough consistency.
Young righties Brandon Sproat and Jonah Tong both enjoyed sensational seasons in the minor leagues in 2025, and while each showed promise in their big-league cameos, it was also clear that both are behind McLean at this point in their development.
It would probably behoove the pair to begin the 2026 season in Triple-A and gain more experience, though it’s also a sure thing that both will be given the opportunity to make an impactful difference on the Mets staff.
But the name that seems to be getting overlooked right now and really this entire offseason is the name that two years ago was essentially what Sproat and Tong are now.
Christian Scott.
The Mets’ 5th-round pick from the 2021 draft was a hotshot prospect in 2024 that forced his way to the majors that May.
He would go on to make nine starts as a rookie and deliver a 4.56 ERA with a 1.20 WHIP across 47.1 innings.
Scott’s big-league performance very closely mimicked what he’d been doing in Triple-A. He walks very few, his stuff is difficult to hit, but when he gets beat, it’s often by the home run ball.
Many of his outings in both Syracuse and Queens were derailed by one big swing, and improved control within the strike zone and higher quality strikes have to be his primary objective this spring.
Unfortunately, Scott lost all of 2025 due to Tommy John surgery, which is frustrating since a full year of further development would really have been beneficial for him.
That said, he’s fully healthy entering camp and is flying under the radar. Like Sproat and Tong, Scott will almost assuredly be given opportunities to win a job and make a difference in 2026, and he feels like someone who could elevate the ceiling of what this pitching staff can accomplish.
The future of this rotation is unquestionably bright. With McLean, Scott, Tong, Sproat, that’s four super high quality arms the Mets will soon be able to clearly project going forward, and none of them offer a low projection at that. They also have some other high quality pitching prospects on the horizon such as Jonathan Santucci, Jonathan Pintaro, Will Watson, and Jack Wenniger.
Of course, they all can’t turn into starting pitchers for this club. And odds are, not all of them will pan out. That’s just baseball and a reflection on the degree of difficulty of making it, staying healthy, and sticking at this level.
Some will obviously be traded too, perhaps as soon as this winter as they look to upgrade the top of this rotation with a veteran, and perhaps try to find an outfielder to fill a gaping hole there. But this is how the Mets have emerged with the best farm system in the game by some measurements, and this is a prospect stock that is generally unique in the game in that they have so many high-ceiling pitchers within their farm system. Teams with the best farm systems in the game have the ability to make trades with those prospects as they have the ability to absorb big losses and take those kinds of risks, like the Dodgers have continued to do throughout the years to help build their dynasty.
Of course, they’ve proven a willingness to make those kinds of deals, whereas the Mets have yet to do so.
Around the League 🚩
Recently retired RHP Ryan Pressly has accepted a position in the Twins player development department (NY Post)
The Yankees have signed Seth Brown to a minor league contract (JustBBMedia)
Atlanta has signed veteran infielder Jorge Mateo (BeisbolFR)
The Phillies are livid about Bichette going to Mets?!! I'd like to know the specifics as to WHY he picked the Mets over Philly. Did he see a better team/Organization or was it just the money 💰....what exactly influenced his decision?
Scott had difficulty with lefthanded hitters in 2024. I saw somewhere that he’s been working on an improved change up.