Christian Scott didn’t spend the winter hunting for a new toy. He was just doing what the Mets asked.
On a Zoom call with pitching coaches before the season, the right-hander heard the idea of adding a cutter to his mix. Pitching coach Justin Willard, vice president of pitching Eric Jagers and assistant pitching coach Dan McKinney were all on board. Scott had one obvious issue: he had never thrown a cutter before.
So when Willard showed him the grip, Scott went with it.
“I held it like that, and it started working,” Scott said. “I was like, ‘You guys are geniuses.’ ”
That pitch has become a real weapon for the 27-year-old, who debuted in 2024 and now owns a 3.13 ERA in 14 starts. Opposing hitters are batting .100 with a .150 slugging percentage against the cutter, and the numbers back up how sharp it’s been. Among pitchers with at least 200 cutters thrown, Scott’s 7 run value on the pitch is tied for fourth-best in the majors.
“No, that’s awesome,” Scott said when asked if he knew his cutter ranked in the top 10 for run value. “Yeah, that’s really cool.”
He added that it didn’t surprise him.
The reason is simple: the Mets wanted a pitch that could work off his fastball. Scott leans heavily on the four-seamer, which he throws 49.3% of the time, so the idea was to give him something with similar velocity and a different look. His sweeper remains his second-most-used pitch at 22.6%, but the cutter has taken the place of the slider this year and now sits at 17.3%.
For Scott, the appeal was deception.
“Being able to tunnel it off my fastball - and my fastball is always going to be a high-usage pitch for me - so just having something that can tunnel off of that and look similar . . . and kind of trick the hitter a little bit,” Scott said.
The cutter wasn’t part of his rehab work after Tommy John surgery in September 2024, which cost him the 2025 season. He said he had been messing around with a kick changeup during rehab, but not the cutter. That came later, after the winter Zoom call and then in spring training.
Even with the newness, Scott took to it quickly. Starting the season in Triple-A gave him time to settle in, and he said it took about four or five starts before he felt “really comfortable with the grip” and could use it consistently.
When he got to the majors in late April, then-manager Carlos Mendoza said Scott had “earned” the shot to join the Mets’ rotation. Since then, Scott has backed that up. His 1.2 wins above replacement, according to FanGraphs, is second among Mets pitchers, behind only Nolan McLean’s 1.8.
“It’s legit stuff, and I’m glad that he’s on our team doing that,” outfielder A.J. Ewing said.
The broader profile is strong, too. Scott’s .288 strikeout percentage ranks 12th, and his 107 Stuff+ is 24th among 151 pitchers with at least 60 innings pitched this season. The fastball and sweeper still drive most of his swing-and-miss work, but the cutter has given him another way to keep hitters guessing.
Scott said his focus is on staying consistent and going deeper into games.
His top goal remains winning a World Series, even if that probably won’t happen this year. The Mets are 44-62 and are expected to move several key players before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
Still, Scott’s case is clear enough. He has shown he can be part of what comes next for the Mets, and the cutter he’d never used before has become a big reason why.
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