When Christian Scott made his long-awaited return to the big leagues in April, almost nothing went according to plan. He had almost no command against the Minnesota Twins, walking five hitters and throwing 43 pitches over 1 1/3 innings. Only 18 of those pitches were strikes.
The 27-year-old right-hander isn’t easily rattled, which is one of the reasons the Mets like him. While obviously frustrated with the results in his first Major League outing since 2024, before he underwent Tommy John surgery and sat out all of last season to rehab, Scott knew he was better than that.
So, too, did Andy Green, the farm director who was moved to the dugout as the interim manager Friday, after the Mets fired Carlos Mendoza.
Green called Scott that night to give him a pep talk.
“Hey, we believe in you,” he told Scott. “And we trust in you.”
It reinforced Scott’s confidence in himself.
“To have that from the organization was huge for me,” Scott told the Daily News. “I took it into my next couple outings. I’m trying to ride that wave and continue to sustain this success. What he’s done for us is awesome.”
For Green, one of the most important parts of his role as a manager — even if it’s only through the end of the season — is forming relationships with the players on the roster. It’s a process that typically starts well before spring training, but it’s nearly July and he’s being tasked with taking the Mets from pretender to contender.
Having worked as the farm director since late 2023, he already has relationships with the club’s top prospects and the big league team’s most important young players, like Scott, and outfielders Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing. A few others on the roster know him from previous stops as well. Catcher Luis Torrens knew him in the San Diego organization, and first baseman/outfielder Jared Young played for Green when he was a bench coach with the Chicago Cubs.
“It starts with relationships,” Green said Saturday afternoon at Citi Field. “There are 26 guys in that clubhouse that deserve a measure of clarity of what is going to change, if anything is going to change, or what the timeline of change would look like. They deserve clarity regarding their role, [and] they deserve time and attention.”
With some of the veterans, it’s a different story. While he might be familiar with them from having faced them with other teams, many of them don’t know how he operates. They don’t know what his philosophies are, how he manages a bullpen or what his demeanor is like in the dugout.
“I don’t have any relationship with him,” said outfielder Juan Soto. “I just met him last spring training.”
When Green was named the manager of the San Diego Padres before the 2016 season, he visited players in the offseason to start the process of getting to know his players and understanding how they work and what they need to be successful. He doesn’t have the luxury of an offseason right now, or even a spring training. Green even admitted that there are only so many hours in a day to have conversations with players.
The job of a manager in today’s game is much different from what it was 20 years ago. No longer are managers given sole discretion over writing out the lineup each day, not when there are entire analytics teams dedicated to optimizing the right matchups. Green, like Mendoza, will work with a team that also includes president of baseball operations David Stearns to determine the lineups, the pitching schedules and in-game strategies. One of the biggest jobs he has is managing the personalities in the clubhouse, empowering them, supporting them and holding them accountable when necessary.
The manager’s message sets the tone for the team. Players felt that his first meeting went well, and that the message was delivered with a tone that was motivating, but also sensitive to Mendoza. Green will rely heavily on his staff to get to know the veterans, and will likely take more time with them than the players he already knows well.
But there is no set plan for how he will get to know guys like Soto and Bo Bichette and Marcus Semien. Green wants these relationships to form naturally.
“If I had a systemic way to establish relationships, they probably wouldn’t be very authentic,” he said. “So take a little bit of time and just get to know people.”
Some of the younger players have already been talking to their teammates about Green. He seems to be well-liked throughout the organization and respected for the way he communicates with prospects.
“You know exactly what he expects of you and what the organization expects of you,” Scott said. “It’s refreshing to be able to have a guy like that you can lean on for advice. He’s been a player and he’s been a manager, so he’s been through all aspects of the game. That experience has been really, really huge for me.”
NOTES
The Mets optioned left-hander Zach Thornton to Triple-A Syracuse on Friday night to activate Scott off the injured list.
First baseman Jorge Polanco (Achilles) is resuming his rehab start with Syracuse on Saturday night. He was in the lineup against Lehigh Valley.
