The ever improving Nolan McLean
Plus - the Mets got shut out again, but it wasn't all bad in a 4-0 loss to Atlanta
What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets got blanked for the second time in four days, falling to the Braves 4-0 (box)
RHP Nolan McLean had another solid outing, surrendering just one run over six innings; he carried a no-hitter into the fifth until Ozzie Albies broke it up with a solo home run
RF Carson Benge had two of the Mets’ four hits, but neither of them resulted in runs
LHP Jefry Yan and RHP Chayse McDermott each struggled in their innings of relief, both allowing at least one run to score; Yan threw 25 pitches, of which only 9 were strikes
With a win today, the Mets would secure a third-straight series victory for the first time this season
Play of the Game ⭐️
In a game where runners in scoring position were woefully scarce, the Mets came up empty in both opportunities, this being the more painful of the two.
After Francisco Lindor grounded out to open the inning, Bo Bichette worked a walk from Martín Pérez. Bichette then reached third base on a Luis Robert Jr. line-drive single in the next at-bat, giving the Mets runners at the corners with a single out.
Carson Benge came to the plate and worked a 2-2 count, but ultimately wound up weakly slapping a down-and-away changeup back up the middle for an inning-ending double play.
The Mets wouldn’t get another baserunner all evening.
The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
ICYMI: On the latest edition of the Just Mets Podcast, Rich and Andrew recapped the club’s 5-1 week and dreamed about the Mets having a chance at a late-season run at a Wild Card.
SUBSCRIBE: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Down on the Farm 🌾
RHP Austin Warren (Triple-A, rehab): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
3B Jefferson Rojas (No. 1 prospect, Double-A): 3-for-4, HR, 2 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB
SS Sammy Stafura (No. 11 prospect, High-A): 2-for-3, R, SB, K
LHP Nicolas Carreno (High-A): 6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 5 K
SS Elian Peña (No. 4 prospect, Single-A): 3-for-5, 2 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI, K
BOX SCORES
Single-A SLU | High-A BRK | Double-A BNG | Triple-A SYR
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (53-68) @ Braves (72-48)
Where: Truist Park - Atlanta, GA
Starters: LHP Zac Thornton (3-2, 2.52 ERA) vs. RHP Tyler Mahle (3-9, 4.83 ERA)
When: 7:15 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
Nolan’s been tinkering, adjusting, and ascending ✍️
Nolan McLean’s three strikeouts on Tuesday are the fewest he’s had in a single start since May, and represent his second-lowest single-game total in 2026.
He also had his most efficient start by pitch count this season: six innings, 85 pitches. He ended up throwing a deGrom on Tuesday night in Atlanta - McLean allowed one run on one hit and lost.
McLean said after the game that mixing his pitches helped keep the Braves’ bats quiet, and boy did he ever mix them. His sinker and fastball saw their expected usage, but he deployed two other shapes hitters haven’t seen much from him this season.
The pitch that played the best all day was what appears to be a relatively new weapon that’s been added to his arsenal — a flatter, more traditional slider.
What a pretty pitch.
Whether or not this is an official Mets Pitching Lab™ shape introduction or just McLean moving his thumb around, I can’t say, but according to Baseball Savant, this specific slider shape has accounted for just over 1% of his year’s overall mix; yesterday, it made up 10% of his pitch selection. That sudden shift in frequency paid off: 38% whiff rate, a strikeout, and three inconsequential batted-ball events (a groundout and two flyouts).
Seeing such potential for success with this pitch, I went to check the numbers — had he really only thrown it a handful of times before yesterday?
Well, yes: Savant’s game logs say that this particular slider didn’t start showing up until around mid-June. Unlike McLean’s more aggressive sweeper and hammer curveball, this slider operates like a slower reverse sinker, arriving at the plate with a similar vertical approach angle with just a little less horizontal movement and about
In a limited sample, it’s been a productive offering: 28 pitches, 57% whiff rate, 28.9% putaway rate, no hits, two strikeouts.
Seems like someone’s found something to deploy alongside his more exaggerated shapes.
In recent months, much had been made about the subtly-but-steadily increasing hittability of McLean’s wiffle ball stuff. Those concerns proved valid: McLean’s looping sweeper has allowed a .375 BA/.550 SLG over 300+ samples. While not a drastic step down in performance from 2025, that pitch certainly hasn’t gotten less hittable, so it makes sense McLean would look to introduce something that fills the same parts of the zone with a tighter, more controllable shape.
I suppose it’s worth acknowledging that McLean’s now allowed a homer in four straight appearances, his longest such stretch since his batch of high-run outings in May. That’s not negligible, and it’s something to keep an eye on for sure…but how much of a cause for concern is that, really?
Despite the homer resurgence, McLean’s been operating with increasing efficiency, averaging at least six innings per start in all but one outing since that same June 17 game; he hasn’t needed 100 pitches to do it since June 24th. That bodes well down the stretch, especially for someone handling their first full season’s workload as a starter, let alone as a rotation ace.
It also seems like the homer issue could be pitch shape-specific: he’s given up seven homers on his four-seamer this year, a pitch he’s thrown 20% of the time this year. It’s not hit often (.212 BA/.435 SLG), but it gets hit harder and for more damage than any other shape in McLean’s repertoire. With only a few weeks left in the season and tinkering clearly afoot, I wonder how much longer it’s going to stay an anchor offering.
The aforementioned sweeper that’s led to a near-.400 opponent batting average? McLean threw it just twice yesterday. And while his fastball still made up 25% of yesterday’s mix, it doesn’t seem accidental that his cutter usage also nearly doubled. Where his fastball operates almost exclusively up in the zone (hence its homer vulnerability), his cutter works towards the lower-first base quadrant of the strike zone, essentially a perfect foil to — you guessed it — the ‘new’ slider:
McLean’s cutter slices through the zone at 92 mph on nearly the same attack path as the slider. The tunneling potential here is very high: these two pitches were thrown a total of 28 times and elicited 18 swings, so they’re clearly both shapes that hitters want to offer at. All those swings yielded three whiffs and seven unproductive batted ball events, with no hits or runs to show for them.
Given the success of these far-less-frequently thrown pitch shapes, I can’t help but wonder how much longer McLean’s arsenal is going to exist as fans have come to know it.
Whatever happens with McLean’s pitch mix, the fact remains we’re still just barely scratching the surface of who he is as a pitcher — that’s exciting to think about. Almost exactly a year on since his MLB debut, McLean has taken the league by storm, an assumed NL Rookie of the Year frontrunner since the end of 2025, although it will be tough for him or Carson Benge for that matter to overtake JJ Wetherholt, the favorite right now. He has a constantly expanding bag of tricks with shapes that impress the league’s best hitters that he hasn’t even fully mastered yet, and he’s just 25 years old.
But those tricks have also proven fairly easy to figure out if they’re not fully dialed in, especially when his breaking stuff moves so much more severely than his velo-first pitches. Incorporating some flatter pitch shapes and working largely off timing disruptions and tunneling/sequencing could help some of McLean’s loopier pitch shapes continue to thrive in more limited applications, as opposed to ‘super movement’ being his entire profile.
Whether it’s a new slider, or a more frequent cutter, or a revamped fastball…whatever he does next, it’ll probably just make him that much more dominant. Though a Rookie of the Year award likely isn’t in the cards, a future Cy Young sure could be.
Around the League 🚩
Dodgers lefty Blake Snell was masterful in his return from the IL, tossing 10 Ks over six innings while allowing just one run on three hits and a walk in a 5-4 LA win; Max Muncy secured the win with a walk-off single in the 10th
Eury Pérez and the Marlins bested Paul Skenes and the Pirates, 2-0; Pérez held the Bucs to just three hits over seven scoreless innings, striking out seven
The Cardinals’ Andre Pallante and Philly’s Cristopher Sánchez were evenly matched, each allowing four hits over six scoreless innings, but St. Louis scored two runs on the Phillies’ bullpen to edge out a win, 2-0
Adley Rutschman recorded a hit and two walks in his Red Sox debut, a 5-3 loss