Amid the ongoing debate over starting pitchers for the New York Mets, Nolan McLean let his actions do the talking.
Not that the 23-year-old right-hander had anything in particular that he needed to prove, but pitching for Triple-A Syracuse on Thursday, McLean set a career high by striking out 10 batters in his five innings against the Worcester Woo Sox. McLean allowed two runs on seven hits and a walk, and the Mets would win 7-4.
McLean improved to 3-4 with a 2.80 ERA after his eighth start and 10th appearance at Triple-A. He has 55 strikeouts and 23 walks in 54.2 innings.
Nolan McLean Earns Career-High 10 Strikeouts for Triple-A Syracuse
The No. 4 prospect in the Mets farm system, McLean would seem to be an obvious choice for a callup while the team is experiencing so many injuries in its starting rotation. But Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns told reporters on Thursday that having McLean will only come up when there is a guaranteed run of open starts for him to fill.
“My preference is to not bring up a top prospect for a spot start,” Stearns said. “I also understand this is a unique circumstance and I can’t take anything off the table right now, but my preference would be to figure out a way to do it without doing that.”
And Stearn said the team’s current needs require a short-term fix.
“I think from a developmental standpoint we prefer — again, it’s not always possible — but we prefer and I’ve seen over my career that it’s often beneficial for pitchers who you expect to pitch in your rotation for years to come to have a little bit of runway when they break into the major leagues,” Stearns said. “It’s not easy to come up here and perform right away. Sometimes it takes two, three, four, five starts to get your feet under yourself at the major league level, and I think allowing a pitcher, especially a top prospect pitcher, to have that runway can be helpful sometimes, both from a physical and a psychological standpoint.”
Ryan Finkelstein of the Locked on Mets podcast recently talked about the conundrum facing the Mets, and he also emphasized the lack of a “clear opportunity” for McLean to get at least five starts in the regular rotation. Additionally, Finkelstein noted the steps the Mets would have to take for McLean to make his MLB debut.
“You don’t want to have a roster casualty on the 40-man roster just to have McLean make one spot start,” Finkelstein said.
Mets Analyst Touts Nolan McLean as Organization’s ‘Most Exciting’ Pitcher
Finkelstein also gave Stearns credit for creating organizational depth in the pitching staff, noting the group of pitchers “that have been up and down on the taxi squad” and provided quality innings in spot start situations for the Mets this season. In fact, Finkelstein said he did some research and found that 12 such pitchers have combined for a sub-.400 ERA over 63.1 innings.
“That’s remarkable, it really is,” Finkelstein said. “It’s just one of those things that we don’t think about that David Sterns excels at.”
Finkelstein also stressed that when McLean does get the chance to make multiple MLB starts, he probably won’t be sent back down.
“Nolan McLean is the guy, right now, in this system, that is the most exciting,” Finkelstein said. “He spins the heck out of the ball. His fastball has both ride to it and run, so you’re talking about a pitch that isn’t just going to play up in the zone. He can really locate it anywhere, and there’s just a ton of movement to it that makes it so tough on hitters. It’s averaging in the mid 90s, but he can get it up to 97, and what he really does well is he just has an incredible feel for breaking balls. His sweeper is absolutely disgusting. He lands it for a strike nearly two-thirds of the time across his professional career. That’s remarkable for a pitch that has that much sweep to it, that much horizontal break.”
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