The Mets Need More Than Nolan McLean To Mount A 2016-Like Playoff Push

Nolan McLean’s impressive big league debut last Saturday and the subsequent two wins over the Mariners and Nationals served as a reminder of how the Mets began climbing from the edge of disaster to the playoffs almost exactly nine years ago.

The defending NL champion Mets were 60-62 and 5 1/2 games out of the final wild card spot on Aug. 19, 2016 but went 27-13 thereafter — the best record in the majors — and earned the top wild card thanks to rookie pitchers Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman, who provided a much-needed spark by going 9-2 with a 2.44 ERA in 15 games (14 starts).

But disheartening losses to the Nationals on Wednesday and Thursday dropped the Mets’ lead over the Reds in the race for the last wild card berth to a half-game — the same as it was last Saturday — entering McLean’s start tonight against the Braves (oh no).

The defeats also served as reminders that McLean may have to pitch twice every five days in order to provide the boost the Mets’ rotation needs — and that the former two-way star might also have to find his way into a lineup that’s growing leaner by the day.

Those are, of course, impossible solutions. But it should also be impossible to do what the Mets have done this season by following up a 45-25 start with a 22-36 mark since June 13. That’s tied with the White Sox — the White Sox! — for the fourth-worst mark in the sport and a game worse than the Rockies — the Rockies! Yup. Even the Rockies aren’t playing at a 100-loss clip over the past 10 weeks.

The Mets’ playoff odds at Baseball-Reference are down to 43.8 percent — a whopping 38.8 percent drop in the last month. Only the Rays, who are truly in an impossible situation post-Hurricane Helene, have experienced a steeper drop in the same timeframe.

Kodai Senga and Kodai Senga combined to last just 9 2/3 innings the last two days, or five outs more than David Peterson accounted for by himself on Tuesday. Peterson somehow remains the only Mets starter to pitch six innings since June 7, which means even if McLean’s debut is a sign of things to come, they’ll need someone else — perhaps Jonah Tong, who struck out nine in his Triple-A debut last Saturday, or Brandon Sproat — to help provide a boost.

The Mets are positioned to give their overworked bullpen a little more margin for error thanks to the trio of reigning NL Player of the Week Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Pete Alonso, who are batting a combined .296 this month with 17 homers and 43 RBIs.

But the lineup grew even more top heavy this week with injuries to Francisco Alvarez, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil. Alvarez’s stint on the injured list forced Luis Torrens into a role where his bat tends to get exposed on an everyday basis — except Torrens is battling a left hand injury, which means Hayden Senger (a .163 hitter in his first 49 big league at-bats) is starting again tonight.

At least Nimmo (neck) and McNeil (shoulder) are day-to-day. Still, their absence resulted in Starling Marte — a forever consummate professional but also a sore-kneed 36-year-old — moving into the lineup on a daily basis and nudging the surging Mark Vientos and Brett Baty further up the order.

Any more injuries, ineffectiveness from the veteran holdovers or growing pains from Vientos and/or Baty will serve as another reminder of the second pivotal part of the 2016 playoff push: The presence of Asdrubal Cabrera, Yoenis Cespedes and Curtis Granderson, who hit a combined .295 with 30 homers and 82 RBIs over 420 at-bats after Aug. 19, when Cabrera and Cespedes each returned from the injured list.

The Mets have to hope Nimmo and McNeil are back much sooner than later and can provide a similar lift. Either way, there’s only so much McLean — a .185 hitter last season before he focused full-time on pitching — can do to help a team whose list of problems grow longer by the day.

Tonight, all McLean has to do is help the Mets avoid the worst-case scenario against the Braves, who will start recent imports Joey Wentz and Cal Quantrill as well as Bryce Elder (6.29 ERA) this weekend at Truist Park, the Mets’ third-generation house of Atlanta-based horrors. What could poss-i-bly go wrong?