Miss the Misery

 

So. To give you an idea. Christian Scott comes up for the Mets on May 4th 2024. He's called back down on May 31st. The Grimace thing happens on June 12th. Scott gets called back up to start July 3rd. From this start to Scott going on the IL on the 21st, the Mets are 8-7. Then, after Scott's injury, the Mets keep winning til they get to an NLCS. 2025 happens, it's hysterical. 2026, decent enough start, then the bottom falls out, everybody gets injured and the Mets wind up in last. And it is at this point that Christian Scott rejoins the Mets and becomes their best starter, with a 2.50 ERA in 8 starts.

I'm thinking the #1 question on Christian Scott's mind right now has to be 'how come I'm only up when the team sucks?' Like, we have a Met whose presence boosts the team, that is Francisco Alvarez, it's proven that the team is substantially better when he's healthy. But the Mets also have Scott, who is only healthy when the team isn't very good. Is he the jinx? Or is the team just so messy this year that it can't be helped?

Now, admittedly. Since May 27th, the Mets have been *better*. Since then they've been 7-4. That's very good timing, I think New York sports fans were conflicted over something from 5 days earlier, or Knicks fever kinda bled over into the Mets. I personally credit the upsurge to the outfield stylings of Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing, who've been having great months. Benge is now hitting .264 with 7 homers and 26 RBIs. Ewing is hitting .270 with 24 hits and 7 steals in 26 games. And while Jared Young is not as Young as Ewing or Benge, he's still getting in on the fun with a .270 average, 3 homers and 7 RBIs in 21 games. With everything in this lineup that isn't working [[motions around]], it's nice that there can be a homegrown boost of genuine talent to help things along.

...which begs the question, would this team be better off if they didn't try to buy up all those contracts and instead let the team develop naturally? Maybe? They'd still have Brandon Sproat, PCA and Luisangel Acuna. 

Either way, the inadvertent side effect of loading up for this year is the big items they've taken on are getting eyed by competitors. Freddy Peralta's lowered his ERA to 4, and is having a very good season if you had no idea how good he was in 2024 or 2025. Marcus Semien's doing his usual thing of heating up after 2 months of progress have already gone by. Luis Robert should be back soon, and should be a July target. Some relievers might be on the block too. Probably not Devin Williams, he's suffered enough.

At the very least the Mets are a better team than they were, and have more immediate answers than just buying contracts. But they're still very far from competing, and they're nothing compared to a much sharper and fuller Braves team. So...unless they plan on really trying to see if Christian Scott is a jinx, it's probably more of the same from here on out.

Coming Tonight: I can't remember the last time that someone made breaking into the majors look so easy right from the jump. Maybe Skenes? Either way, this guy's immediately making waves.