Christian Scott injury update: Mets rookie pitcher to undergo elbow surgery months after landing on IL

New York Mets right-hander Christian Scott will undergo elbow surgery next week to both replace his ulnar collateral ligament (the Tommy John ligament) and install an internal brace, agent Nate Heisler announced Wednesday. While every player and every rehab stint is different, Scott will likely be out until the 2025 season.

Scott, 25, has been out of action since July 21. In nine major league appearances this season, he posted a 4.56 ERA (86 ERA+) and a 3.25 strikeout-to-walk ratio. When the Mets placed Scott on the injured list on July 23, they described the injury as a UCL strain.

“It's too early to say,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said at the time about the possibility that Scott would need surgery. “I'm not going to sit here and speculate when we don't have all the facts and information. We have to wait until the doctors and all the people who have to evaluate the MRI and all that have to make that decision.”

Scott's elbow problems have been bothering him since last season and caused him to miss more than two weeks towards the end of the season.

Aside from Scott, the Mets will continue to be without their regular players Kodai Senga and Paul Blackburn, the latter of whom was recently unable to play due to a cerebrospinal fluid leak in his back.

The Mets enter Wednesday with a season record of 83-68, tying the Arizona Diamondbacks for the National League's second wild-card spot. The Mets are also two games ahead of the first team out of the playoffs, the Atlanta Braves. The Mets and Braves will play three games in Atlanta next week, a series that will determine the season series/tiebreaker and could ultimately determine which of the two clubs will stake a claim to a playoff spot at the end of the year.