Mets' Pitcher Nolan McLean Wins Gold Glove

Add another gold star to the compilation of New York Mets' pitcher Nolan McLean's 2026 season superlatives.

On Sunday night, MLB announced that New York's first-year pitching standout had become the first rookie pitcher and just the second Mets' hurler - following Ron Darling in 1989 - to win a Rawlings Gold Glove Award in this, the 70th year, that Rawlings has partnered with MLB to recognize the players judged to have exhibited overall fielding excellence throughout the season.

McLean is also the first Met to be so honored since centerfielder Juan Lagares in 2014.

McLean was selected for the honor ahead of fellow finalists Michael McGreevy of the St. Louis Cardinals and Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves following a voting process made up of the manager and six other coaches from every team, which counts for 75% of the vote, and the sabermetrics community, which accounts for the remaining 25%.

In his 31 starts this season, McLean, a stellar athlete who played six different positions at Oklahoma State University before concentrating on pitching with the Mets, totaled 24 assists and 16 putouts with three errors for a .930 fielding percentage.

He was also adept at holding runners close at first, with only eight stolen-base attempts against him during the course of the season with six successful steal attempts.

When considering the advanced Defensive Runs (DRS) metric, which measures a player's defensive performance by calculating how many runs they saved or cost their team compared to an average player at their position, McLean scored a +4, second best in the game behind McGreevy's +5.

McLean was one of nine first-time winners of the Gold Glove award this season, which matched the number of first-timers following the 2025 season.

Two other Mets had been nominated for the award this year but were pipped by a pair of Arizona Diamondbacks, who had three players honored, tied with the Boston Red Sox for the most in the game.

At catcher, Luis Torrens saw Arizona's Gabriel Moreno take home the hardware, while rightfielder Carson Benge finished behind Arizona's Corbin Carroll in the balloting. For Moreno, it was his second Gold Glove award, while Carroll joined McLean as one of the nine first-time winners.

McLean and Benge remain in the hunt for additional postseason hardware. After being named to MLB's All-Rookie Teams, along with centerfielder A.J. Ewing, on Oct. 13, they are expected to battle with the Cincinnati Reds' Sal Stewart and St. Louis Cardinals' J.J. Wetherholt for NL Rookie of the Year honors, which will be announced on Nov. 8.