Mets have early Rookie of the Year favorite on roster to build around

A New York Mets youngster has all the ability to win the NL Rookie of the Year Award next season.

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The 2025 season was a disaster for the New York Mets, who still missed the playoffs after signing Juan Soto to a historic 15-year, $765 million deal.

It certainly wasn’t Soto’s fault that the team struggled, as he was named a finalist for the National League MVP award. What really cost the Mets was the inability of their starting rotation to consistently perform.

With the rotation unable to work deep into games, the bullpen was subsequently overworked and taxed, leading to some meltdowns. In need of help on the mound, New York turned to their youthful arms as a last-ditch effort to save their season.

Top pitching prospects Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat were all called up. Success was experienced by all of them at points, but it was McLean who really shone.

Nolan McLean is early NL Rookie of the Year Favorite

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The No. 1-ranked prospect in the organization and No. 11 in all of baseball, McLean quickly turned into the most reliable member of the rotation for manager Carlos Mendoza to turn to. And that is why Jim Callis, Jonathan Mayo and Sam Dykstra of MLB.com named him the best Rookie of the Year candidate for the Mets heading into 2026.

“He worked with six different pitch types in the Majors, favoring his mid-90s sinker and high-spin sweeper while also mixing in his curveball (perhaps the spinniest pitch in the bigs), four-seamer, changeup and cutter…With his combination of whiffs and ground balls, he heads into ‘26 as an NL ROY favorite,” they wrote.

Read More: Mets expected to be aggressive in adding free agent pitching

McLean wasted no time making his presence felt at the big league level. Despite being thrown right into the fire of a playoff race, he responded as well as anyone could have hoped he would.

Nolan McLean will take home the NL ROTY and the NL CY Young award next year 😈🔥pic.twitter.com/znHwALYyWm https://t.co/2PWqnJbiyE

— SleeperMets (@SleeperMets) November 11, 2025

He ended up making eight starts and throwing 48 innings, just short of the number that would have exhausted his rookie eligibility. A 2.06 ERA and 57 strikeouts were recorded.

This didn’t come against bottom-barrel competition, either. McLean's debut was against the Seattle Mariners, who lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in seven games in the ALCS. Two starts were made against the NL East champion Philadelphia Phillies, along with two more starts against playoff teams in the Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs.

Nolan McLean has the makings of a future ace

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Possessing all of the tools necessary to be the ace of a staff, McLean has immense potential. His arsenal is deep and well refined, having a different pitch to combat hitters on either side of the plate and with any type of strengths and weaknesses.

His stuff was elite in the minor leagues with spin rates no one else was coming close to matching. Those numbers didn’t slow down in the major leagues, giving him an incredibly bright future.

The Mets will assuredly be looking to add some impact performers to their starting rotation this season. But McLean will be featured prominently as well; had New York made the postseason this year, there is a strong chance he would have been starting Game 1 of the series as the team’s newfound ace.

Now, it is the Mets' job to build around this electric arm.