NEW YORK -- The Mets are about to promote one of the most promising pitching prospects they've developed in years.
No. 3 Mets prospect Nolan McLean, ranked 37th in baseball, will make his Major League debut Saturday in a start at Citi Field against the Mariners, the team confirmed. McLean will replace struggling veteran Frankie Montas in the rotation, with a chance to stick there if he pitches well.
While manager Carlos Mendoza is publicly unwilling to commit to more than a single start for McLean, the Mets theoretically will have a rotation need for the rest of this season.
"We feel good with him going out there and giving us a chance to win baseball games,” Mendoza said. “Credit to him that he put himself in this position. Pressure? There’s always pressure. It’s the big leagues. The biggest thing for us is just for him to go out there and be himself.”
The Mets' third-round Draft pick in 2023, McLean began his professional career as a two-way player before becoming exclusively a pitcher early last season. When he did, McLean rapidly leveled up, developing into one of the most successful pitching prospects the Mets have employed in a decade.
Following an early-season promotion to Triple-A Syracuse this year, the 24-year-old McLean produced a 2.78 ERA over 16 appearances.
"I think I try to keep it as simple as possible and just go out there and compete as hard as I can, not try to overthink the game too much,” McLean said last week at Syracuse. “The hitters we face are really, really good. So I’m trying to do my homework the best I can, but at the end of the day, go out there and play the game, compete, and just get the ball over home plate.”
He added: “I’m always expecting the best out of myself.”
The right-handed McLean, who is in line to pitch Saturday on five days’ rest, features a six-pitch mix that revolves around one of the most effective sweepers in Minor League Baseball -- one that prompted Triple-A pitching coach A.J. Sager to assert last month: “He can spin it like not a whole lot of people can.”
“The first thing everybody talks about when you first meet him that you notice is just the makeup overall,” Sager added.
"Just the way he handles himself, there’s a quiet confidence to him. He accepts coaching very well, but he also understands himself and has a real idea of how he’s going to have success. And that ends up being a pretty good mixture to move the bar pretty quickly, especially when you mix in superior talent.”
With Montas in the bullpen, the Mets had two realistic options to start in his place: McLean and Brandon Sproat, the team’s fifth-ranked prospect. Six weeks ago, that would have been an easier decision, with Sproat struggling at Syracuse.
Sproat has since produced a 1.15 ERA over seven starts, giving Mets officials at least a bit of pause before they ultimately settled on McLean. It’s possible Sproat could come up later this season.
“Both of those kids were in the conversation,” Mendoza said. “At the end, we decided to go with McLean. But I think it says a lot about where Sproat is at in his development, the fact that his name was in the conversation too."