Quinton Fesq
Venezuela beat the United States 3-2 in the 2026 World Baseball Classic Final on Tuesday night at loanDepot Park, and the NY Mets’ Nolan McLean walked off the mound having done everything asked of him. He gave his team 4.2 innings, 4 strikeouts, 2 earned runs, and a real chance to win the biggest game of his young life. The offense never gave him one.
McLean entered the night as the consensus No. 1 pitching prospect in baseball, ranked sixth overall by MLB Pipeline and eighth by Baseball America, with all of 8 major league starts behind him. Mark DeRosa handed him the WBC championship game anyway. That tells you something.
A Start That Outgrew Its Expectations
DeRosa didn’t expect McLean to pitch into the 5th inning. Per SNY, the manager said his staff was planning on 3 or 4 innings before handing it to the bullpen. McLean rendered that plan irrelevant.
He breezed through the 1st, getting a double play off Ronald Acuña Jr.’s leadoff single and ending the inning without a run. The 2nd was cleaner: back-to-back strikeouts of Eugenio Suárez and Gleyber Torres, a single, a popup, done. Through 2 innings on 24 pitches, McLean looked like he belonged on this stage because he did.
The 3rd is where the score changed, and the sequence matters. Salvador Perez singled to open it. McLean struck out Jackson Chourio. Acuña walked. Then a wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, and Maikel Garcia lifted a sacrifice fly to center. Venezuela led 1-0. McLean had navigated a jam without a hit driving in the run, limited the damage to 1, and came back out for the 4th without blinking. He retired the side in order.
One Pitch Away
The 5th started with a Wilyer Abreu solo homer to dead center. That was it, 2-0. McLean got the next 2 outs quickly, then DeRosa came to get him before a third look at Acuña. Final line: 4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 4 K, 1 BB, 63 pitches, 44 strikes.
On the Abreu homer, McLean was direct after the game. “I could’ve executed a little bit better,” he told SNY’s Margaux Ochoa. “But he’s a really good player at the same time. I would love to go back and make a different pitch obviously.” No deflection, no excuse-making. A 24-year-old processing a mistake on the biggest stage he’s ever stood on.
Bryce Harper, who went 2-for-4 with the game-tying homer in the 8th, offered the most pointed endorsement of the night. “Whenever you get down 2-0 it’s tough,” Harper told SNY, “but I thought Mac threw the ball great. He’s a special talent. He’s going to be a special talent for a long time.”
DeRosa echoed it. “We were thinking he’d give us 3, he’d give us 4,” he said via SNY, “and we were going to go right to the bullpen and see where the game was at. That’s a testament to him. He had unbelievable stuff tonight.”
McLean’s own reflection after the game cut to something larger than the loss. “It’s very rare you get that feeling and that pride,” he told SNY. “Being able to do that for your country is just special.”
What Comes Next
Venezuela won it in the 9th on a Suárez go-ahead double, USA fell 3-2, and the result stings. But McLean pitching 4.2 innings in a championship game with 8 career starts isn’t a cautionary tale. He showed up to spring training sitting 97-98 mph, nearly 2 mph harder than last year, and spent the better part of this winter getting ready for a full 2026 season. The WBC was a detour. Now comes the real thing.
He posted a 2.06 ERA with 57 strikeouts across 48 innings in his MLB debut last season, two innings short of the rookie limit. He was the Mets’ best starter down the stretch of a September that got away from them. The question for 2026 isn’t whether McLean can handle a rotation spot. After Tuesday night, the question is how long before he’s leading it.
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