Christian Scott Is Mets' Greatest 2026 Success Story, Because He's Learned How To Cut Up Lefties

Christian Scott throws right-handed, unleashes his curveball and splitter a combined 9% of the time, and leans heavily on the tried-and-true fastball-slider combination. Based on those details, it shouldn’t be too surprising to learn that out of the 340 batters he has faced this season, 214 (63%) of them have been left-handed. You can’t fault opposing managers for stacking the lineup card with left-handed sticks against a righty without a traditional platoon neutralizer, but they’re making a grave mistake. 

Pretty much any way you cut it, Christian Scott is a righty without a changeup or curveball who dominates lefties. He owns a 29% K%, 8.4% BB%, 3.36 FIP, and 3.34 xFIP against those very hitters. While those aren’t the best figures in the league, they stand in stark contrast to when he has the platoon advantage. Versus righties, he has a 28.6% K%, 11.9% BB%, 3.12 FIP, and 4.24 xFIP. Considering the sample is small enough that home run rate has yet to stabilize, his xFIP, which assumes a league-average home run to flyball rate, is probably a better indicator of his true pitching talent. 

On top of getting more strikeouts and issuing fewer walks when facing lefties, even his batted-ball data is more favorable. His infield flyball rate of 13.7% is elite, while his 6.9% mark against righties is rather pedestrian, and he gets more ground balls against left-handers (34.9% vs. 30.4%). So, how is Scott doing this? It’s not luck; no, he’s cutting down lefties all because of a cutter buried in on the hands.  

Traditionally, the changeup and curveball are the go-to platoon-neutralizing offerings, but the cutter is another option that can be equally as devastating. When Scott debuted back in 2024, he brought the very standard three-pitch mix of fastball, slider, and an oft-used splitter. Unsurprisingly, he did fine with the platoon advantage and was downright bad without it. If he was going to get back to the bigs and stay in the rotation, he needed some way to get opposite-handed batters out. So, he did what any pitcher who struggles to pronate should do: He added a cutter, and it has completely changed his profile.

Scott’s cutter isn’t superlative in terms of velocity or movement, but it pairs exceptionally with his four-seam fastball and slider in a way that gives lefties nightmares. His four-seamer is typically located at the top of the zone, with a general bias towards the right-handed batter's box. Meanwhile, his cutter is almost always up and in on lefties. Hopefully, you can already see the dilemma. Out of the hand, left-handed batters don’t know if they’re facing a fastball up and away, or a cutter that will bear in on their hands. 

Making matters even better, or worse if you’re a lefty facing Scott, is that the threat of his cutter causes his slider to play up as well. His sweeper/slider is an interesting pitch; it drops far less than the average comparable offering, but that makes it tunnel even better with his cutter. Functionally, Scott’s slider is his cutter’s changeup. 

This band of pitches all at different velocities and movement profiles causes each pitch to play well above its raw stuff. Just look at this four-pitch strikeout of Matt Olson, owner of a 142 wRC+ against righties.

Pitch one (cutter inside, swinging strike)

Pitch two (low sweeper, fouled off)

Pitch three (fastball up and away out of the zone)

Pitch four (sweeper down and in, swinging strikeout)

Scott’s evolution into a lefty killer is only a half-wonderful development for the Mets. Most righties with a fastball-sweeper combination struggle to get lefties out, while dominating righties, but the opposite is true for Scott. Somehow, someway, the same characteristics that make him a nightmare against left-handers haven’t translated against righties, and it won’t be long until managers get wise and start stacking them into the lineup. 

However, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to conjure up a world where Scott adds another pitch or element to his repertoire to start baffling righties as well. In fact, his biggest issue might be eminently solvable. When facing same-sided batters, he has a 55.6% first-pitch strike rate, which lags far behind his 62.6% mark against lefties. Getting strike one is a big deal, especially for Scott. 

When up 0-1, the handedness of the hitter largely melts away. Against lefties in 0-1 counts, he has a 35.4% K%, 6.2% BB%, and 1.56 FIP, and when facing righties, he has a 37.7% K%, 8.2% BB%, and 1.68 FIP. However, when he falls behind 1-0, the script flips. Against lefties, he has a 26.1% K%, 13.6% BB%, and 4.38 xFIP, compared to a 23.6% K%, 18.2% BB%, and 5.53 xFIP versus righties. 

Simply getting ahead of righties with more frequency would do Scott a world of good. He has better contact figures in and out of the zone against righties, but he cannot get them to chase as often, which leads to more walks and fewer strikeouts. 

Just like against lefties, Scott’s best pitch by run value has been his cutter, but he only throws it 11% of the time to right handers, compared to 22% against lefties. It might be crazy, but maybe he needs to start cutting up righties, just like the lefties.