He’s tucked away on Team USA’s World Baseball Classic roster amid Cy Young Award winners and All-Stars.
Yet even as Nolan McLean’s career is just getting started, he’s lined up to take on a significant role for the Americans.
McLean, the New York Mets’ 24-year-old right-hander, has made just eight career major-league starts but might end up getting the ball in the WBC championship game. Team USA manager Mark DeRosa has lined up ace Paul Skenes for the semifinal round, to get the Americans to the championship.
From there, it might be McLean’s turn.
He’s starting Team USA’s fourth pool-play game on Tuesday against Italy, which already will be a significant task as both teams enter undefeated in pool play. So how did such a relative newbie earn such esteem so quickly?
Who is Nolan McLean?
It wasn’t that long ago that McLean was harboring dreams of following in Shohei Ohtani’s footsteps, not Skenes’. The Mets drafted him as a two-way player in the third round out of Oklahoma State in 2023, and he kept the bat in his hands into the 2024 season.
At least until his pitching far out-kicked his hitting.
As McLean’s arm got him to Class AA, making contact became a problem: He struck out 74 times in 143 plate appearances at high A and AA. Pitching it was.
On that side of the ball, he averaged a strikeout per inning, a good thing. And in 2025, he needed just five starts to graduate from Class AA Binghamton up to AAA Syracuse – where he was even better.
As McLean stacked dominant starts at Syracuse, posting a 2.78 ERA across 16 appearances the clamor for him to buttress a Mets rotation gasping for air grew louder. He finally arrived Aug. 16 – and became perhaps the most reliable cog on a Mets team that couldn’t stop a free-fall.
Lest we forget, McLean was originally a three-way player: He was a highly recruited quarterback out of Garner, North Carolina, and on Oklahoma State’s football roster as a freshman. Seems like he picked the best lane.
Nolan McLean stats
Startlingly, his numbers were even better in the National League than the International League. He gave up just 34 hits in 48 innings. Posted a 2.06 ERA, a 57-16 strikeout-walk ratio and 1.04 WHIP.
Oh, and he essentially couldn’t lose.
The Mets won seven of his eight starts, his lone setback a 1-0 defeat to the division champion Phillies. Not that Philly got the best of him: He also spun eight shutout innings against the Phillies at Citi Field, giving up just four hits in his third major league start.
Yes, perhaps the WBC won’t faze him too much.
Nolan McLean pitch repertoire
It usually takes pitchers the better part of a decade to master a half-dozen pitches, the result of endless tinkering, exposure to a wide swath of teammates and greater self-knowledge.
Yet McLean, at 24, might already be there.
He typically pitches off a four-seam fastball that averages 95 mph and has touched 98, along with a power sinker that most often serves as his putaway pitch. Yet his sweeper and curveball play significant roles as well, and gain greater effectiveness thanks to his trusty No. 1 and his daunting sinker.
McLean also throws a cutter, though that for now remains his perpetual workshop pitch, and a changeup.
No, they’re not all perfect weapons. But for a guy to confidently throw that many pitches in a major league setting at such a tender augurs well for when McLean is, say, 30 years old.
Nolan McLean salary
Yep, he’s perhaps the biggest value on both the WBC and star-studded Mets squad.
McLean will make $791,500 this season, the slight raise from the major league minimum of $780,000 a nod to his late-season contribution in 2025. He also figures to be a prime candidate for additional earnings through the pre-arbitration bonus pool that was enacted in the most recent collective bargaining agreement.
And while McLean still has six full seasons via free agency, he and other younger players should keep a wary eye on CBA negotiations and any significant changes to arbitration eligibility or free agency. He received a $747,600 signing bonus after getting drafted in 2023.