Mets: three novice arms will do the job to reach October
Mets trusts his newbies Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat to secure the ticket to postseason
The New York Mets Catcher, Hayden Senger, did not take a long time to realize that Nolan McLean had a direct pass to the big leagues. They were colleagues in Syracuse when McLean debuted in Triple-A in May and Senger worked with him for the first time. McLean’s curve was the best Senger had seen.
“It’s incredible,” Senger said recently, laughing. Three months later, with Senger again behind the plate, McLean kept the Philadelphia Phillies without scoring in eight entries in his third open in the major leagues. He used six types of releases, but used his curve more frequently: 28 times, causing three strikeouts and 10 strikes. He dominated a powerful team with postseason aspirations with only 95 launches. The Citi Field was boiling.
The stadium, with exhausted tickets, returned to vibrate two days later when Jonah Tong, possibly the best launcher of the minor leagues this season, joined McLean in the rotation of the Mets, limiting the Miami Marlins to a single race in five tickets. And on Sunday, Brandon Sproat joined the party, taking in Cincinnati the turn in the rotation of veteran Kodai Senga, becoming the third promise of the Mets to debut in major leagues in less than a month. Sproat kept the Reds without Hits in 5.1 tickets, but allowed three races in six tickets and finally suffered defeat in a game that ended by board 3-2.
In the ideal world of David Stearnsthe trio would have reached the big leagues more calmly next season. But the president of baseball operations decided that the METS, a team with postseason aspirations that needed quality pitchers with several injured veterans or in a bad streak, needed them now.
“I think, when you enter the last month of the season, you want to have the best possible roster,” Stearns said.
The three right -handed pitchers had different paths to reach this opportunity in the midst of the fight for the postseason. McLean, former field marshal, was a two -sports player at the University of Oklahoma State. Tong was a young Canadian with a peculiar launch style. Sproat showed great potential in SEC with Florida Gators. Together, they represent the flourishing players development system, which, according to the evaluators, is full of talent under the direction of Stearns. At the beginning of the season, Sproat, 24, was considered the best of the three. Kiley McDaniel of AM850 He placed it 62 of his list of baseball prospects (he was chosen in the second round of the 2023 draft), while McLean took place 123 and Tong on 147. However, Sproat had difficulties at the beginning of the season, with an effectiveness of 6.69 in nine openings with Syracuse until May 20. Then it improved, with an effectiveness of 3.19 in its next 17 outputs, thanks to a higher speed and movement on its four -sewing line (97 mph).
“Sproat has the greatest natural talent and the greatest potential of the three,” said a rival scout. “His roof is very high.”
But, according to talent evaluators, Sproat’s ability is not at the level of McLean and Tong, which allowed the latter to reach the big leagues.
“McLean and Tong are excellent pitchers, but none has had to deal with the failure in professionalism,” said a talent evaluator. “It will be interesting to see how they handle this situation and how they adapt, both in their technique and mentally. Sproat had difficulties at the beginning of the season, so he has probably developed greater resilience and adaptation capacity.”
The development of McLean, 24, accelerated after focusing on the launch during the summer of 2024, his first full season as a professional. After focusing solely on the launch, this player, chosen in the third round of the 2023 draft, optimized his ability to generate rotation in the ball and ascended from Binghamton (double A) to Queens in 2025, reaching the 19th place in the list of the 100 best prospects of McDaniel. In its four openings, its curve has the greatest average rotation in the big leagues, and its curve is among the best. More importantly, he has granted only seven bases per ball in 26.1 inputs, after averaging four balls per ball per nine entries in the minor leagues.
“Despite the lack of experience as a pitcher and being a double function player, McLean was always the safest bet,” said a rival scout. Tong, 22, was so relegated in the list of MET projection players by 2025 that he was not even invited to the Major League preseason camp. Chosen in the seventh round of the 2022 draft, with a small complexion and a very particular launch mechanic, similar to that of Tim Lincecum (Winner of the Cy Young Prize of the National League twice), Tong presents the most vertical launch angle of all the major league pipers this season.
With that unusual mechanics, it has perfected a curve with vertical rotation, an explosive line with an excellent vertical effect and a speed change that has added this season, dominating the batters of the minor leagues. It achieved an effectiveness of 1.43 in 22 openings in the AA and AAA leagues, reaching the 21st position in the last ranking of McDaniel prospects and thus achieving its rise to the big leagues.
“It is a great success in the development of players for the METS,” said an executive of another team.
The victories of the developing players do not count for the general classification, and the World Series trophies are not delivered by the performance of the minor leagues system. The Mets would have preferred not to depend on three rookies in September. But the opening rotation, without an experience of experience – Stearns chose not to sign an elite pitcher during the seasonal break or before the closing of the signature market – has been full of injuries and low performance throughout the summer.
Senga, one of the two best pitchers planned by the METS for this season, was lost a month due to an injury to the hamstring and, after his return, he had such a poor performance that on Friday he agreed to be relegated to the triple-a to overcome his problems. Sean Manaea, the other first -level holder of the Mets, has an effectiveness of 5.60 in 10 openings, after having been out for more than three months due to an oblique injury. Tylor Megill suffered a sprain in the right elbow in mid -June and was out of rotation. Griffin Canning broke the left Achilles tendon less than two weeks later. Frankie Moves – with a two -year contract and 34 million dollars signed in the seasonal break – had an effectiveness of 6.68 in seven openings before passing to the bullpen and suffering a breakage of the ulnar collateral ligament in the right elbow.
In mid -August, the Mets turned to their prospects to reinforce the roster. In October, a team with championship aspirations and the second most expensive roster of the league could end up depending on these three young people to win important games, long before planned.
“I will continue to insist on the same,” said the manager of the Mets, Carlos Mendoza. “We are going to have the best players we have, day after day.”
