Nolan McLean Wins a Gold Glove: The Rookie Who Ended a 12-Year Mets Drought

Sometimes the best Mets news of the offseason shows up on a quiet Sunday night. On November 1, Rawlings announced that Nolan McLean is the National League Gold Glove winner at pitcher, and just like that, a drought that stretched back to 2014 is over. Juan Lagares was the last Met to take one home. Twelve winters later, it is a rookie right-hander doing it.

Let that sink in for a second. McLean is the first Mets rookie to win a Gold Glove at any position, and only the second Mets pitcher ever to win one. The other was Ron Darling back in 1989. When your name shows up in a sentence with Darling, you are in good company, and Darling is now a fixture in our booth, so there is a nice full-circle feeling to it.

The easy storyline is the arm. McLean finished 12-10 with a 3.16 ERA over 31 starts in his first full big league season, and that alone would have been a good year. But the glove work is what made the award real. He was credited with four Defensive Runs Saved, which tied for fourth among all major leaguers, and he held down the running game in a way that frustrated opponents. Teams barely bothered to test him on the bases. When a pitcher makes the other dugout shy away from stealing, that is value you never see in a box score.

Here is my fan take: this award matters more than a typical fielding trophy because of what the Mets need in 2027. Rebuilding the rotation is the big winter project, and everyone wants to talk about the splashy free agent names. But a young starter who prevents runs on the mound, in the field, and on the bases is exactly the kind of foundation you build around. McLean is on a path where he does not need to be the ace for this team to benefit. He just needs to keep doing the little things at a high level.

It was also a bittersweet night for other Mets finalists. Carson Benge in right field and Luis Torrens behind the plate were both nominated, and neither won. Benge led NL right fielders with 10 outfield assists and looked like a rookie with real defensive tools, and Torrens would have been the first Mets catcher to win. Corbin Carroll took right field and Gabriel Moreno took catcher, both for Arizona. I still count the nominations as a win. Having three Mets finalists says the defense under this staff took a real step forward, and that is not something we could say every year recently.

So what should we watch next? The big one is Rookie of the Year. The announcement is set for November 9, and McLean is in the mix as a dark-horse candidate, with Benge also on the list of contenders alongside Sal Stewart and JJ Wetherholt. Having two Mets rookies in that conversation would be a nice sign that the farm system is doing its job. I will not predict a winner, but the Gold Glove can only help the case that McLean did more than just throw strikes.

The second thing to watch is how the front office uses this. A Gold Glove pitcher with a sub-3.50 ERA is a cost-controlled piece, and that flexibility is gold when you are deciding how much to spend on the rest of the staff. I would rather see the Mets protect that kind of value than chase a roster full of expensive names and hope the pieces fit.

For now, just enjoy this one. Twelve years is a long time to wait, and it came from a rookie who still has plenty of room to grow. Congratulations, Nolan. Queens is proud.