57
57, is the only number I think about before Nolan McLean throws the first pitch to a start, and it’s the last number I think about after he delivers the last pitch to another masterful performance.
The relevance is defined by circumstance, and circumstance is defined by what transpired in the past and what is expected to happen in the future.
Why is 57 relevant to McLean’s story? 57 is the career number of innings McLean pitched during his entire career at Oklahoma State University.
2 innings his freshman year.
25 innings his sophomore year.
30 innings his junior year.
McLean’s offensive potential limited his time on the mound, as he put on shows in batting practice launching tape measure home runs rarely seen by a player his age. That’s why O.S.U. tried their best to develop his bat first, while also fulfilling their promise to let him pitch out of the bullpen.
The Orioles drafted McLean in the third round of 2023 Draft, but there were discrepancies over the interpretation of MRI results from a post-draft physical. The Orioles offered McLean a below-slot offer, which he quickly declined, and returned to school as the highest drafted player in his class to fail to come to terms.
< The second highest drafted player who also failed to come to terms, was Brandon Sproat, who rejected the Mets assigned slot-value offer. >
Mets drafted McLean in the third round of the 2023 MLB Draft, quickly coming to terms after promising McLean the opportunity to develop as a two-way player. The Mets fulfilled their promise during the 2024 season allowing him to start 60 games as a hitter, as well as 25 starts as a pitcher.
HITTING STATISTICS:
130 AB | .192 BA | 8 HR | 9 2B | 74 K
The problem wasn’t that McLean couldn’t hit, he was simply too raw to face the advanced level of pitching of High-A ball. Many of his homers were tape-measure blasts that had zero problem cutting through Brooklyn’s home-run-killing climate conditions. Just ask Ryan Clifford, who could only total 2 homers during his time there. Despite his struggles in the batters box, he quickly began to dominate on the mound.
The Mets promoted McLean to AA-ball, which is nothing short of lunacy if you ask me. Remember we talked about this with Zach Thornton, where every once in awhile, teams feel the best way to figure out how talented a player is, requires trying to break them.
A combined 85 innings into his career as a pitcher and McLean is now tasked with pitching in the Double-A Eastern League, one of the most talented leagues in the minors. Despite struggling initially, McLean more than held his own and quickly established himself as a top pitching prospect in the Mets system and one of the biggest steals in the 2023 MLB Draft.
2024 STATISTICS:
109.2 IP | 3.78 ERA | 1.26 WHIP | .238 BAA | 116 K | 96 H | 42 BB
N. MCLEAN CAREER MINOR LEAGUE STATISTICS
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS FROM 2023 DRAFT CLASS
Despite accumulating almost double the total number of innings he’s ever pitched in his career, against exponentially superior competition, McLean delivered career bests in every statistical category. Simultaneously raising a pitcher’s workload and level of competition exponentially doesn’t just cause regression in a prospect’s development, there are plenty of cases where its broken them beyond repair.
Todd Van Poppel
Brien Taylor
Paul Wilson
To name a few.
McLean’s ability to meet this level of adversity head-on and continue to develop under-fire, is when I started noticing this kid is going to be special. Lots of talented pitchers put up numbers when they’re coddled in their development, but the number of pitchers who are subjected to this level of adversity is about as rare as it gets due to the inherent risk involved.
That is a GUNFIGHTER.
That is ANGRY MIKE SYNDICATE.
Like with Thornton, the Mets tried to break him, and also like with Thornton, they failed.
187 innings into his career, McLean was now slotted in the same rotation as top pitching prospect Sproat.
Sproat # IP prior to 1st AAA start: 300 IP
McLean # IP prior to 1st AAA start: 187 IP
McLean transition to AAA-ball was seamless, racking up dominant starts on a weekly basis, despite many other top pitching prospects stumbling from their first taste of AAA-ball. Sproat dominated AA-ball and looked like one of the best pitching prospects in baseball before his promotion to Syracuse, where he simply didn’t exhibit remotely the same dominant performances. McLean finally got the call to make his MLB debut on August 16th, despite considerably lower career IP and less experience than Sproat.
Did the Mets task McLean with an easy opponent for his MLB debut?
No of course not, instead he squared off against one of the hottest lineups in baseball and toed the rubber against the Mariners #1 starter, Bryan Woo. He not only outpitched an all-star and future potential Cy Young candidate in Woo, McLean exhibited the rare ability to look like he belonged. His performance was remarkable because he is nowhere close to being a finished product. McLean’s ceiling is nothing short of a “Ace potential”, because of his talent as a “pitcher’s-pitcher”, an elite pitching arsenal, and his mutant-powers of handling adversity.
To be the best, you must beat the best, and McLean’s ability to calmly outpitch Woo, a phenomenal talent in his own right, solidified what many prospect-junkies have been screaming from every social-media platform roof-top for months now:
Nolan McLean has the rare ability to be one of the best…
6 comments:
Incredible. Just wish he could be the next Pete Alonso, too
Tom, Nolan had incredible brute power as a batter, but you would have hated his K/9
The Mets did the right thing in making him an exclusive pitcher
Mack, agreed, but I think if he had four years to just hit in the minors at a slower progression, he might have at least partially solved his K dilemma. Ang gotten to the big leagues as a power hitter. We will never know.
I never knew he pitched only 57 innings in college, amazing how quickly he’s developed
Maybe I'm just being crazy but after 2 starts I get a deGrom Wheeler hybrid may be what we have here. That raw talent that could significantly improve over the next ~3 years has shades of deGrom and Wheeler is clearly a comp as both a former met and a dominant sweeper. His cutter/2-seam vs his sweeper/curveball is over 30 inches of break combined! If he can maintain his release point (that first 20 feet outta his hand) he's going to break alot of bats and also send a lot of bats flying out of hitters hands. Jonah is the "guy", at least imho, for the last year or so and I'm still incredibly excited for him but the guy I'm getting concerned about is Sproat. I'm no baseball savant but especially with Mclean getting the nod I'm wondering if Sproat is lacking something and it's holding him back.
Feels great to hope to have your starters coming through the system and outside of 1st base have solid kids getting ready to come up. The bullpen is my only concern but if Holmes goes back, And other guys keep their form we should be able to address 1 or 2 needs without trading anyone that isn't 2nd or 3rd on the depth chart at their position.
McLean clearly has a wipeout slider and comparable velocity to Sproat that he can hold deep into games, i think that’s why he got the call. I think Sproat and Tong can have a similar impact they just have different pitches they utilize that might need a little more seasoning.
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