New York Mets' rookie starter Nolan McLean has officially hit the first rough patch of his major league career in 2026.

Through his first nine starts of the season, McLean allowed 19 runs (17 earned runs) on 35 hits while striking out 64 batters with a 2.92 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP in 52.1 innings.

Now, in his last two starts, Nolan McLean has allowed 16 runs(13 earned) in just nine innings with an ERA of 13.00 and 1.89 WHIP. He even hit 4 batters in these two starts, 1 more than his previous 9 outings.

With these recent outings, McLean's 2.92 season ERA has ballooned to 4.40 after these two starts.

“We’ve got to dive deep here because something’s off, for sure,” said Mets manager Carlos Mendoza.

In his first 15 major-league starts, McLean gave up only six home runs. However, in his last four starts alone, he’s allowed six homers.

"The first problem for McLean is his recent bout with the long ball. He served up two more homers Monday: a solo shot to JJ Bleday in the third and a two-run tater to Tyler Stephenson in the fourth. That’s six homers in the last four starts for the right-hander, who’d given up only six in his first 15 major-league starts," said The Athletic's Tim Britton.

Nolan McLean has also struggled when runners are on base. With nobody on, batters hit just .166 against him with a .559 OPS. Once a runner reaches the base, the numbers flip to .296 with an .819 OPS.

Even more telling, McLean’s strand rate – the number of runners he leaves on base without scoring – sits at 62.1 percent. That’s the third-worst mark in the entire league. So what went wrong?

Manager Carlos Mendoza on Nolan McLean having trouble

“He’s having a hard time landing the secondary pitches,”  Mendoza said after Monday's game. “There’s a ton of movement side-to-side and not so much depth, and he’s getting into bad counts; it comes down to execution,” he added.

Advanced data backs this up. McLean’s secondary pitches, such as the sinker, 4 seamers, and cutters, are still effective, with only the sweeper having a batting average above .250. The problem he has is the location and the missing depth.

Following his early exit against the Reds, McLean also reflected on his sudden lack of execution. “It’s just bad pitching, honestly,” Nolan McLean said bluntly.

“Getting behind in counts, not landing my off-speed pitches, and I’ve been hitting guys with two strikes... I haven’t been pitching my best, and I gotta be better," he added further.

When pinpointing the root of the issue, McLean added that he did too much mound work between starts, trying to fix everything at once. It only led to him losing his legs after striking out the first three hitters he faced in order on Monday.

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Written by

Md Saife Fida

Edited by

Sagnik Bagchi