Alexander Wilson
The Mets should not turn Nolan McLean into the villain here. That would be lazy, and frankly, it would miss the bigger problem.
McLean had a brutal afternoon Monday, but the real issue is what his outing says about where the Mets are as a rotation. When a struggling team has to keep leaning on young arms in pressure spots, ugly nights start feeling bigger than one pitcher.
The Mets lost 7-2 to Cincinnati and fell to 22-31. McLean allowed seven earned runs over 3.1 innings, giving up five hits, two homers, two walks, two hit batters, and striking out six.
McLean’s line got ugly fast
The strikeouts at least tell you the raw stuff was not invisible. Fifteen Reds struck out overall, which makes the final score feel even stranger. The Mets missed bats and still got buried because too many damaging mistakes came early.
McLean’s single-game line translated to an 18.90 run-scoring rate, and his season ERA jumped to 4.40 across 61.1 innings. That does not make him a disaster. It does make Monday a loud reminder that development rarely moves in a straight line.
The homers are what hurt. Young pitchers can survive walks if they keep the ball in the yard, and they can survive a mistake if the bases are clean. McLean gave Cincinnati too many chances to cash in, and the Reds did not waste them.
The Mets are running out of cushion
The Mets’ rotation situation has been getting squeezed for weeks. Injuries, inconsistency, and a dead offense have turned every start into something heavier than it should be. It is not a fair environment for a young pitcher trying to learn on the fly, but fair does not really matter in a season sliding this hard.
McLean still has plenty to like. He has a 1.09 WHIP, misses bats, and has already shown enough to stay in the conversation. The problem is that the Mets need stability now, not scattered flashes of what he might become.
The front office has to be honest here. If the Mets are going to keep running young starters into tough spots, they need to accept the volatility that comes with it. If they cannot live with that, they need another veteran innings source before the season gets too far away from them.
McLean will get another chance, and he should. But Monday was a reminder that the Mets are dealing with more than a bad start here or there. The rotation is stretched thin enough that one rough young-arm outing can make the whole operation look desperate.
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