- Mets have struggled since June, currently clinging to a wild-card spot.
- Pitcher Nolan McLean dazzled in his MLB debut, giving NY hope for the final six weeks.
WASHINGTON — Anointing Nolan McLean the savior of their season is the last thing the New York Mets want to do.
After all, for as much energy and magic McLean provided in winning his major league debut at Citi Field on Aug. 16, he’s just a 24-year-old barely a year removed from putting the bat down for good and focusing full-time on pitching.
“We want him to be himself. We don’t want to add any extra pressure,” says manager Carlos Mendoza of McLean, who struck out eight in 5 ⅔ scoreless innings against the Seattle Mariners. “We want him to continue to go out there and give us a chance to win.”
Yet McLean’s assimilation will take on a heavier tone if the Mets’ veteran arms aren’t able to turn around a second half where hitting a collective wall has dented their NL East title hopes and imperiled their playoff outlook.
McLean’s gem stopped a slide in which the Mets lost 14 of 17 games, part of a two-month pattern in which their starting pitchers’ fortunes have virtually flipped.
Oh, Mets starters rank seventh in the majors in ERA (3.71), but due to a variety of factors, are just 27th in innings pitched. And their slide in output and quality coincided with the Mets’ struggle.
They held a 5 ½-game lead in the East on June 12 yet thereafter began the first of two seven-game losing streaks. And then Griffin Canning, a fill-in turned savior who posted a 3.77 ERA in 16 starts, tore his left Achilles June 26.
Clay Holmes, returning to a starting role after six years in the bullpen, was brilliant in his first 16 starts, the Mets winning 11 of them as he averaged nearly six innings a start with a 2.97 ERA.
But finishing this marathon has proven challenging: Holmes is averaging less than five innings in his last nine starts, the Mets losing five of them, as he’s posted a 5.02 ERA and his strikeout-walk ratio has shriveled to 1.66.
Sean Manaea? An oblique strain and loose bodies in his elbow delayed his debut until July 13, but the Mets have lost six of his seven starts as he’s thrown no more than 86 pitches. Frankie Montas has been relegated to long relief. Kodai Senga hasn’t made it past five innings in eight of his 19 outings.
And yet here the Mets are, 67-58, a discouraging 5½ games behind the Phillies yet holding a tenuous grip on a wild card spot, a fate they learned last year could lead to the NL Championship Series.
Hanging on may depend on a kid or two bailing them out.
From three-way player to one
McLean’s 6-2, 214-pound frame is straight from central casting for a pitcher it belies the fact he’s an absolute freak athlete.
Forget two-way player: McLean was a three-way guy when he reported to Oklahoma State, with designs on pitching, hitting and playing quarterback for the Cowboys. Yet it was apparent after his freshman year that he had a surefire future on the diamond.
He hit 19 homers as a sophomore and had OPS marks of .936, .992 and .911 in three seasons as a Cowboy. On the mound, he pitched just 57 innings but was selected in the third round by Baltimore as a draft-eligible sophomore.
The Mets bested that, drafting him in the second round in 2023 as a two-way player, figuring nature would take its course.
Come last summer at Class AA Binghamton, McLean was averaging a strikeout an inning as a pitcher – and a punchout in 52% of his plate appearances as a hitter.
For the Mets, nature was healing and McLean’s decision was easy.
“I’ve always been able to throw the ball. It’s just that last year, when I was hitting still, I was getting tired pretty early,” McLean tells USA TODAY Sports. “And as a starting pitcher, you want to get deep into ballgames. That was something I really wanted to get better at.
“I felt like the only way for me to do that was to have my legs and my full body underneath me which, luckily, once I set the bat down, I was able to get that second wind later in the year last year and carry it into this year.”
Indeed, McLean was a different cat when he returned to Binghamton, acing AA ball with a 1.37 ERA in five starts and getting summoned upstate to Syracuse, one stop shy of Queens.
He was even a little more dominant at Syracuse, punching out 10 batters an inning and posting a 1.10 WHIP, maintaining his stuff through 16 appearances. Blessed from a young age with the ability to spin the baseball, McLean threw a curveball that registered 3,511 rpm, more revolutions than any curve measured at the big league level this year.
Meanwhile, the Mets were taking on water, their staff incessantly dogged by injuries and poor performance. Veteran Paul Blackburn was designated for assignment, making room for McLean along with 15 friends and family who converged on Queens from North Carolina for his debut.
“It was special, just getting to see them after the game, they’d known how hard I worked to get to that point in my life,” says McLean, “Being able to see them at a pretty emotional point was pretty awesome to be a part of.”
It seemed almost equally emotional for Mets fans. They roared in approval when the video board caught McLean in the dugout on a couple of occasions, after his work was completed.
Their hunger for help has probably not been sated. Mets fans are keeping a close eye on the progress of Jonah Tong, who was promoted from Class AA to AAA last week and, pitching at Syracuse the same day McLean threw in Queens, posted an almost identical line: 5 ⅔ shutout innings, with eight strikeouts.
While it would certainly be a rush job to summon Tong before season’s end, the club also has invested around $420 million in payroll this season, including projected luxury tax penalties. There will be no shorts taken to ensure a playoff berth in this, the first year of Juan Soto’s 15-year, $765 million contract.
‘The team’s ready for it’
Of course, the best way to ensure October baseball would be for the Mets’ current starters to turn it around. To that end, All-Star lefty David Peterson, coming off the worst start of his season, dominated the Washington Nationals on Aug. 19.
After blowing a big lead and giving up six runs in 3 ⅓ innings to Atlanta, Peterson took a shutout into the eighth inning and dominated the Nationals in an 8-1 victory.
With 37 games left, they’re still up on Cincinnati for the last wild-card berth. Peterson’s gem kicked off a stretch of 16 games in 16 days where it behooves the starters to get deep – not just to preserve a bullpen stretched beyond belief but stabilize this season.
“The team’s ready for it. We know how to handle it,” says Peterson, who completed at least seven innings for the sixth time this season. “It’s really important where every guy goes out there and we’re trying to give the team a chance to win and go as deep as they can.
“Guys work their butt off and I’m confident we’ll keep the momentum rolling.”
Mendoza couldn’t suppress a grin pondering what Peterson’s eight innings and a blowout win meant to a side that saw 10 of its past 15 games decided by three runs or less.
“For him to go eight, it was really good. Solid, in complete control, and it was good to see, after his last outing, to see him bounce back that way,” says Mendoza. “Haven’t played a game like that in a while.
“We’re going to need those guys. Especially in this stretch.”
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