Scott (sprained UCL) opting for rest, rehab after MRI shows inflammation

NEW YORK -- Mets rookie pitcher Christian Scott has avoided a major elbow operation -- for now. An MRI on Scott’s right elbow revealed inflammation around his sprained UCL, but nothing that would warrant season-ending Tommy John surgery. He will refrain from throwing for two weeks before restarting a catch program.

“It’s not the worst-case scenario, which is awesome,” was how Scott characterized it. “A sigh of relief for now.”

“Good news, so far,” added Mets manager Carlos Mendoza.

Still, Scott said, the next two months amount to an experimental period for him. If Scott does further damage to his UCL when he begins ramping things up in August, he could always undergo surgery and miss the same amount of time -- the rest of this season, as well as all of next year -- as he would have if he underwent a procedure right now. For that reason, Scott has little reason not to pursue a more conservative, rest-and-rehab strategy.

“Might as well try it,” Scott said. “If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. But at the same time, I feel really confident about the information we have now, and everybody’s on the same page about it.”

That doesn’t mean Scott views surgery as an inevitability; quite the opposite. Last year, Scott suffered a similar elbow injury in August and missed three and a half weeks. Upon his return, Scott didn’t feel any elbow discomfort until last Sunday’s start in Miami.

He believes his recovery process this time around can be similar.

“If I’m able to push through and it feels good in-game,” Scott said, “this is something that we can continue to ride and continue to be comfortable with going into position for next year.

“People deal with soreness a lot. This is something you can manage. But obviously, surgery is the last option that you really want to have. If we can avoid surgery, that’s the best option to have for everybody involved. So if I can take this and run with it and feel good coming in and testing that in-game, that’s obviously the best-case scenario.”

Scott, a college reliever who has already exceeded his college and professional career highs with 89 2/3 innings this season, was 0-3 with a 4.56 ERA over his first nine big league starts. He said he wasn’t sure if his sprain was a stretching of the ligament or a partial tear.

Although the Mets haven’t revealed a timeline for him outside of his two-week shutdown, pitchers typically need at least as much time to build back up as the amount that they missed. That would suggest a total absence of at least a month for Scott, who could conceivably return in late August or early September to help a pennant push.

“It’s obviously frustrating,” Scott said. “I want to be able to come out and help this team compete and win the World Series, and I can’t do that throwing 80 innings and then being shut down in August. But at the same time … it seems like the best option is to [rest] right now. So [I’m] taking that and running with it and doing the best I can.”