The New York Mets are focused on improving their defense and pitching staff after an abysmal finish to the 2025 season.
The Mets’ starting rotation imploded last year after being the top unit in Major League Baseball for the first few months of the season. Pitching wasn’t the only problem, as the defense was below-average and the offense went ice-cold down the stretch.
Even though pitching was the rise and fall of the Mets, there was one pitcher who didn’t waste his opportunity after getting called up to try and save the team.
Nolan McLean made his first MLB start on Aug. 16 against the Seattle Mariners and allowed just two hits over 5.1 scoreless innings. He walked four batters but struck out eight en route to his first career win. He won his next three starts in a row to become the first pitcher since 2014 and only Met in franchise history to win his first four MLB starts.
McLean was fascinating to watch. His curveball was his best pitch and was his wipeout offering. It was a great groundball pitch as well, and McLean generated groundballs 60.2 percent of the time.
“McLean's nasty curveball had a strong 62.5% grounder rate, but it really excelled as a swing-and-miss pitch,” MLB.com’s Brian Murphy wrote Saturday. “Getting a ton of horizontal movement, McLean's curve was responsible for a 50% whiff rate -- 25 misses on 50 swings. McLean recorded a strikeout on 19 of the 27 at-bats that ended on his big breaker, and it's not like opposing hitters did much damage when they actually made contact. They mustered just two hits (both sharp singles), and the other six curveballs they put into play each had an exit velocity of less than 85 mph.”
McLean’s 60.2 percent groundball rate and 30.3 percent strikeout rate are unprecedented in today’s game, and he could end up being the National League Rookie of the Year over a full season with the numbers he produced. McLean had a 2.06 ERA and 1.04 WHIP over 48 innings of work (eight starts).
“McLean became the 38th starting pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) to have a minimum of 100 batted balls and post a ground-ball rate of at least 60%. McLean's grounder rate was specifically 60.2%. There had been 65 prior instances in the pitch-tracking era of a starter logging a 60% or better grounder rate.
“Although the young right-hander threw his mid-90s sinker just 27.9% of the time last season, it was still his most frequently used pitch. It was hit into play 40 times, and all but eight of those batted balls ended up on the ground. That outrageous 80% ground-ball rate was nearly the highest in MLB, regardless of pitch type (minimum 25 batted balls ending on that pitch type).”
The Mets will rely heavily on the shoulders of a 24-year-old with tons of potential for years to come.