That was the tweet, and as it proceeded to be shared by more Mets’ fans than I could count, everyone naturally wanted to know the identity of the scout.

Well, in truth, the person behind that astute observation was more Frank Viola, the pitching coach in Savannah at the time, than the scout himself. I knew Viola, the former AL Cy Young winner, from having covered him when he pitched with the Mets, and I had checked in with him by phone in May of 2012 to talk about the young pitching in the organization.

Beyond the names of Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler, who were close to the big leagues, there were lower-level prospects such as Steven Matz, Michael Fulmer, Rafael Montero, and Domingo Tapia who were already getting significant buzz.

Yet Viola told me deGrom was the guy who stood out most to him.

“He’s really just getting started but I think he could be the best of the bunch,” I remember Viola saying. “He doesn’t miss his spots.”

For my purposes it was mostly background information at the time, because the Mets didn’t want their minor-league coaches or managers talking about prospects, so I couldn’t quote Viola or even source him without potentially getting him in trouble with the organization.

Still, I thought it was worth noting on Twitter, but I needed a scout who I could use as a source. None of the scouts I regularly checked in with had seen deGrom at Savannah yet that year, but one of them gave me the number of the guy I wound up speaking to, and while he said he saw some potential in deGrom, he wasn’t nearly as excited about him as Viola.

Over the years I haven’t talked much to that same scout, and when I called him on Tuesday he said he honestly didn’t remember our conversation, so I’m just going to allow him to remain anonymous.

More to the point, speaking to the scout at the time was what I needed to give me cover to use Viola’s info as the basis for my tweet. When I told Frank about all of that on Tuesday he howled with laughter.

“All because the Mets had those gag orders,” he said. “Especially for me. They knew I liked to talk. I still feel like every time I talk I hear the Mets in the background saying, ‘Frank, shut up, shut up.’ ”

These days Viola, a 20-game winner for the Mets in 1990, is the pitching coach for High Point (N.C.) Rockers in the Atlantic League, but there was a time when he seemed to be in line to be the big-league pitching coach at Citi Field at some point, reaching the Triple-A level before apparently falling out of favor with the organization.

“I have no idea what happened,” he said when I asked. “It’s not something I worry about. I had a great eight-year run with the Mets. Would it have been nice? Yeah, but sometimes you can’t control that stuff.

“I’m having a blast coaching at this level. I have guys with dreams of getting back to the big leagues, and if I can help them, it’s great. I’m not being told how to do it, all that stuff. With my personality, it’s fun being me. I like talking, I like living. After what we all went through with Covid, it’s great being back doing something I love.”

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