The Mets slide continued Friday night. The Mets scored nine runs yet still lost the game as the Mariners were able to score 11 on the pitching staff. Over the last week the Mets offense has fully woken up but the pitching staff has completely fallen apart. There are a lot of vibes in baseball. Since the series with the Brewers, no lead has felt safe, every opponent rally feels inevitable.
So the Mets are switching it up today! The Mets are calling up one of their top prospects, Nolan McLean, to make his major league debut in Queens!
There is a new group of highly touted Mets pitching prospects, and Nolan McLean is the first to make his major league debut. The 24-year old righty was originally drafted by the Orioles in 2022 out of Oklahoma State, but didn’t sign him so he went back to school and was drafted in the same round by the Mets in the following season.
Over 21 games and 18 starts this season across Syracuse and Binghamton, McLean has pitched 113 2/3 innings with a 2.45 ERA and 1.126 WHIP with a 10.1 K/9. He has a mid-90’s fastball that he matches with a high-spin, mid-80’s sweeper. He rounds out his arsenal with a cutter, changeup and curveball.
The Mets bats will get a look at Bryan Woo this afternoon. Woo has pitched a career high 146 innings over 23 starts with a 3.08 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 0.952 WHIP and a 121 ERA+. He’s coming of an average start where he allowed three runs from seven hits against the Rays. Home runs have become an issue for Woo over his last five starts. He’s allowed eight of them (4.31 ERA, 4.61 FIP). Juan Soto is the only player on the Mets who has faced Woo before (2-for-5, 2B, HR, BB, 2 K).
Three Things To Watch For:
- Francisco Lindor. Lindor is scorching hot again. He now has three consecutive games getting on base at least three times and has hit three home runs over his last two games. The batting line is insane. He’s gone 8-for-12 with a double, three home runs slashing .667/.714/.1.500. The Mets are going to need every bit of this version of Lindor to get out of their current funk.
- Juan Soto. Don’t let the noise from the greater New York area sports radio market full you, Juan Soto is putting up a very Juan Soto season. He went 1-for-4 last night with a home run and a walk. He has now hit five home runs over his last eight games with a .405 OBP. Soto now has a 4.6 bWAR, and thanks to his home run last night, he’s one stolen base away from his first ever 30-20 season. The only thing that has not been Soto-esque is his BB/K ratio. He is still leading the league in walks and probably will set the Mets franchise record for walks in a season, but its also the first season since 2019 he’ll strike out more than he walks.
- Containing Cal Raleigh. The Big Dumper did his thing in Queens yesterday. He hit his 46th homer, continuing his absurdly great season while using a fairly fantastic bat. Overall the Mets pitchers just need to contain everyone to get out of this funk. They need to keep the base paths clear for when the big bats come to the plate and limit potential damage.
Let’s Go Mets!
