Scott, Benge Show Out in Exhibition
If you are looking for great signs for the Mets during spring training, there were two on Wednesday: Christian Scott was excellent in his return to game action and Carson Benge took a lefty deep.
“Pretty impressive,” Carlos Mendoza told reporters of Scott’s outing after he struck out five over 2 2/3 scoreless innings in a 5-2 win over Team Israel. “First time out there facing another team. It’s been a long road for him. It hasn’t been easy, especially when you have to go through the whole rehab process, and he had a taste of it in 2024, and he was really good for us.”
Scott, the Mets’ top pitching prospect when he debuted in 2024, made nine starts (0-3, 4.56 ERA) before being sidelined and undergoing Tommy John surgery. He looked like his old self while throwing 40 of 50 pitches for strikes.
“But just really the way the ball’s coming out like he’s got live on that fastball, not only 96, but it’s just live,” Mendoza said. “And the way he was using all of his pitches. The cutter was really good, the sweeper was good, the change-up, like everything. And he attacked. That’s one thing from him, he’s not going to back down from attacking hitters. He’s going to stay on the attack, and we saw that today. Just the fact that he was competing out there, it was just fun to watch.”
Scott said he’s been looking forward to Wednesday’s appearance for “a long time. Probably about 18 months, I would say. So I guess as soon as I got the surgery done, I knew this was what was on the horizon, so it was just about being consistent and keeping it day-to-day and keeping the faith. But yeah, I’ve been thinking about this day for a long time, so it was exciting to get my feet underneath me.”
Benge Homers
Benge hit one home run vs. a lefty last season in 123 plate appearances across three minor-league levels. So it was good to see him homer to the opposite field off lefty Ryan Prager, a Guardians ninth-round pick in 2025 out of Texas A&M.
“It always feels great, but can’t really focus too much on results or anything, just knowing that the work that I do pre-game and post-game is really all that matters to me,” Benge said. “Results, yeah, they’re nice, but you know, at the end of the day, it’s sticking to your work.”
Benge’s splits in 2025: .232/.407/.326 vs. lefties and .295/.379/.512 with 14 homers vs. right-handers in 396 plate appearances.
“I don’t really think about it too much,” he said of facing left-handers. “Honestly, it doesn’t matter to me who’s up there. I just try and do my best to win the battle.”
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