Nolan McLean had just wrapped up his bullpen session on Wednesday afternoon when Syracuse pitching coach A.J. Sager broke the big news.
Sager revealed that his next scheduled start wouldn’t be in Triple-A, instead he was being called up by the Mets to make his highly-anticipated big-league debut.
McLean is set to take the ball on Saturday against the Seattle Mariners.
Even though David Stearns hinted this was more of a possibility the last few weeks, the youngster admitted the promotion came as a bit of a surprise, but he’s excited for the opportunity to jump up to the next level.
“I was trying to do my best to stay in the moment with Syracuse,” McLean said on Friday. “It kind of caught me off guard when A.J. did tell me, it was for sure a surprise — but it’ll definitely be a dream come true.
“I remember telling my dad when I was little seeing big leaguers, 'I want to do that, it seems fun playing baseball for a living' — I’m just trying to take it one game at a time, go out and compete as hard as I can tomorrow and take it from there.”
While it was a shock to McLean, it certainly isn’t for those who have seen him pitch.
The 24-year-old done nothing but cruise his way through minor league lineups this season.
He started the year with Binghamton but was promoted after just five starts and carried that success over to the next level — pitching to a 2.78 ERA and 1.09 WHIP across 16 outings down in Syracuse.
Overall, McLean has posted a stellar 2.77 ERA with 127 strikeouts — a rate of 10.1 K's per nine.
The hope is that he’ll be able to carry that success to the big-league level and provide a much-needed boost for this rotation down the stretch as he slides in in place of the struggling Frankie Montas.
While nerves are certainly expected with a ton of family and friends on hand for his first career outing, he’s just looking to take the ball and do his thing.
“Part of the game is going out there and competing with what you’ve got,” he said. “My stuff isn’t going to change from Syracuse to here, so I’ve got what I have and I’m just going to go out there and try to do my best.”
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