After Nolan McLean’s second start, he found himself in some rarified air among Mets’ pitchers early in their career. As it is always important to compare apples to apples, we looked back at the past nine starting pitchers that the Mets brought up that stuck around and had success to see just where McLean stacked up.
It turns out, he stacked up pretty damn well. Now, after winning his third start and becoming the first Met in history to win his first three games, we wanted to update the leaderboard
and show how McLean is excelling in almost all areas of his game.
It should be noted that the pitching win, like all statistics, is an imperfect measurement of a pitcher’s performance. But for every ‘reliever who threw one pitch got the win,’ we sometimes get pitcher wins where the stat rings a little more true. That’s clearly the case with McLean’s three starts; in his first against Seattle he allowed just two hits and four walks with eight strikeouts over five and a third innings and 91 pitches. His second start saw him go deeper (seven innings), walk none, allow two runs on four hit and strike out seven.
But last night was truly the highlight of McLean’s young career. Eight scoreless innings, four hits, no walks, and six strikeouts. Two of those hits came in the eighth inning when he was starting to tire a bit, and he was able to induce weak enough contact to not allow either runner to score. It wasn’t until the eighth inning that the Phillies had an at-bat with runners in scoring position. It was a special night in what is looking like the start of a special career.
But again, we must pump the brakes and remind ourselves of the small sample sizes at play here. But again, to compare apples to apples, let’s see just how McLean is stacking up against Mets recent history.
| Name | Debut Date | Game 1 IP | Game 2 IP | Game 2 IP | Total IPs | Game 1 Hits | Game 2 Hits | Game 3 Hits | Total Hits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Harvey | July 26 2012 | 5.1 | 6 | 5 | 16.1 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 15 |
| Zack Wheeler | June 18 2013 | 6 | 5.1 | 4.2 | 16 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 13 |
| Jacob deGrom | May 15 2014 | 7 | 6 | 6.2 | 19.2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 13 |
| Noah Syndergaard | May 12 2015 | 5.1 | 6 | 6 | 17.1 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 15 |
| Steven Matz | June 28 2015 | 7.2 | 6 | 5.1 | 19 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 |
| Seth Lugo | August 8 2016 | 6.2 | 5 | 6 | 17.2 | 111 | 2 | 5 | 14 |
| David Peterson | July 28 2020 | 5.2 | 6 | 5 | 16.2 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 16 |
| Tylor Megill | June 23 2021 | 4.1 | 5 | 5 | 14.1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 10 |
| Christian Scott | May 4 2024 | 6.2 | 6 | 4 | 16.2 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 18 |
| Nolan McLean | August 16 2025 | 5.1 | 7 | 8 | 20.1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 10 |
Just in terms of innings pitched and hits allowed, McLean is first in the clubhouse. His closest competition, innings pitched-wise, is Jacob deGrom, whereas soon to be teammate Tylor Megill allowed just as few hits across his first three starts as well.
| Name | Game 1 Ks | Game 2 Ks | Game 3 Ks | Total Ks | Game 1 BBs | Game 2 BBs | Game 33 BBs | Total BBs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Harvey | 11 | 7 | 5 | 23 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 |
| Zack Wheeler | 7 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| Jacob deGrom | 6 | 4 | 4 | 14 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 |
| Noah Syndergaard | 6 | 5 | 5 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Steven Matz | 6 | 8 | 6 | 20 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| Seth Lugo | 3 | 5 | 4 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| David Peterson | 3 | 8 | 3 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Tylor Megill | 4 | 8 | 7 | 19 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Christian Scott | 6 | 8 | 3 | 17 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Nolan McLean | 8 | 7 | 6 | 21 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
Matt Harvey still takes the cake for strikeouts across three starts with 23, but McLean is right behind him with 21, and right ahead of Steven Matz with 20. Things are slightly different when comparing to Matz however, because his third start came more than two months after his first two after suffering a partial tear of the latissimus muscle. McLean is tied with Christian Scott for fewest walks allowed across three starts, and it should be noted that McLean hasn’t waked a batter in his last two starts.
| Name | ERA after three |
|---|---|
| Matt Harvey | 3.86 |
| Zack Wheeler | 5.06 |
| Jacob deGrom | 1.83 |
| Noah Syndergaard | 2.60 |
| Steven Matz | 1.89 |
| Seth Lugo | 2.55 |
| David Peterson | 3.78 |
| Tylor Megill | 3.50 |
| Christian Scott | 4.82 |
| Nolan McLean | 0.89 |
While all of those metrics are important, run prevention is the name of the game for starting pitching, and no Met in recent memory has prevented runs from scoring more effectively in his first three starts than McLean. deGrom came closest, but was still .94 of a run behind McLean, with Matz a full run behind.
It is important to remember that over three starts, many pitchers in baseball have looked this good or better. This is not enough data to make any long term assessment of McLean’s prowess or place in Mets’ history. But that said, the stark improvement of the Mets’ fifth starter spot from Frankie Montas to Nolan McLean is one of the more extreme upgrades the team has made at one position in years.
It will be very interesting to see how McLean’s 2025 shakes out, and what Jonah Tong can add to this conversation on Friday night.
