If preseason predictions were made for who would end up being the pitchers of the year in the New York Mets organization for 2023, many names would have popped up. While Mike Vasil, Blade Tidwell, or Dominic Hamel would have been guessed the most in the beginning, the Mets showed it’s an organization that is built up strong pitching depth at all levels of the system. Hence, two names, Christian Scott and Tyler Stuart, ended up emerging in 2023 to put themselves on the map for the next season.

Christian Scott. Photo by Bronson Harris of the Binghamton Rumble Ponies

Christian Scott

Scott was a 5th-round pick of the Mets in the 2021 MLB Draft out of the University of Florida. After ending his first full season in the minors at High-A Brooklyn, the 24-year-old had his 2023 season start a month late due to injury. After one outing at Low-A St. Lucie, he made his way back up to Coney Island and dominated.

Scott made six starts and went 1-0 with a 2.28 ERA and had 27 strikeouts to 4 walks in 23 2/3 innings of work. Even though he only went four or more innings in four of those outings, the right-hander allowed only one run in the final 18 innings that he threw, while teams managed to hit only .176 against him and didn’t record a homer.

Due to that success, Scott got the promotion up to Double-A Binghamton to continue his development. In 12 starts with the Rumble Ponies, he went 4-3 with a 2.47 ERA and had 77 strikeouts to only 8 walks in 62 innings of work. In 7 of those 12 starts, Scott threw at least six innings and had 8 or more strikeouts four times.

While he did not win any of his five starts in July, Scott threw the ball well in both July and August (1-0, 2.45 in 2 starts). He had 11 strikeouts in his first start of the month against New Hampshire on August 5 and then recorded his best outing of the month a week later against Somerset, where he threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings while allowing only one hit and striking out five.

Unfortunately, Scott made his second trip to the injured list on Aug. 17, but he was able to return for Binghamton’s playoff push at the end of the year. He started Game 1 of the semifinal series against Somerset, allowing one run on two hits with five strikeouts over three innings.

 

The key pitch for Scott last season and going forward is his changeup. He also paired the pitch with his fastball which jumped in velocity to between 93 and 96 miles per hour. Scott’s development is still ongoing as he went from being a reliever in his final collegiate season at Florida into becoming a starting pitcher with the Mets. The key to that success according to him is the development of the changeup, as he told the media after winning the Mets Minor League Pitcher of the Year award, to go with the fastball and the slider that he used at Florida as the primary offspeed pitch.

“Developing my changeup,” Scott told the media. “For the past couple of years, I never really had one. Being able to in the Arizona Fall League, being able to use the changeup in multiple counts and become comfortable with it, not to rely on the fastball, I think that was huge for me in my development.”

In the latest Top 30 rankings here at Mets Minors, Scott was ranked as the 12th-best prospect in the system and the third-highest starting pitcher. As his development continues, it will be interesting to see what path Scott goes on in 2024 and if he can get to Triple-A Syracuse as quickly as he got to Double-A this past season.

Tyler Stuart

As for Stuart, the 6th-round pick in 2022 had a strong first full season in professional baseball, especially since he did not pick up his first loss until August 10 when he was already promoted to Double-A. In 21 starts between Brooklyn and Binghamton, the 24-year-old went 7-2 with a 2.20 ERA and had 112 strikeouts to 32 walks in 110 2/3 innings.

In May, Stuart was dominant as he only allowed two earned runs in five starts (0.71 ERA) and went five or more innings in four of those starts. On May 21 against Hudson Valley, he threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings and allowed four hits, walked a batter, and struck out eight in his lone win of the month.

Going deep into games was not uncommon for the former Southern Miss right-hander. Out of the 21 starts he made, Stuart pitched into the sixth inning eleven times and had gone seven or more innings on five different occasions.

Like Scott, Stuart got a promotion to Double-A on July 14, and if you take out one bad outing he had against Somerset on August 10 (5 ER, 7 H, 1 IP), he was able to hold his own despite striking out as many hitters. His last start of the regular season came on August 23 when he threw six scoreless innings, allowed two hits, and struck out six in a win against New Hampshire.

The success for Stuart comes with the ability to use his slider to induce hitters into groundball outs. According to FanGraphs, he got hitters to hit a groundball 49.5% of the time while with Brooklyn and 39.6% of the time with Binghamton.

The 6’9” right-hander is also transitioning into being a starter, so there is still plenty of development for him. In the Mets Minors prospect rankings, he is ranked 19th in the system. If he can generate more strikeouts (9.1 strikeouts per 9), he is another one who isn’t too far from making an impact on the big league club sooner rather than later.