McLean's two-way journey to continue with Mets

There is a reason why Shohei Ohtani clones have not taken over the game, despite the impact he has had on Major League Baseball since his debut five years ago. The Angels star is not the first to attempt pitching and hitting at the same time in the Majors. He certainly won’t be the last. And yet Ohtani is the only player doing both on a full-time basis at the highest level.

“I don’t think it’s easy,” Mets special assistant to the general manager Steve Martone said after his team selected another two-way player, Nolan McLean, in the third round (No. 91 overall) of the Draft on Monday. “But he’s a premium athlete. If anybody were to attempt it and accomplish it, it would be somebody like that.”

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Time and again, the Mets and other franchises have selected two-way stars from the college ranks, only to turn them into specialists once they sign their first pro contract. It’s difficult enough for even a high pick to carve out a Major League career doing one or the other. Excelling at both requires elite athleticism, skills, discipline and health.

The Mets believe they’ve found that rare combination in McLean (ranked as the No. 97 Draft prospect by MLB Pipeline), who has pitched and played four other defensive positions over three seasons at Oklahoma State. As such, McLean’s new team is going to give him a chance to keep showcasing those abilities in the Minors as a designated hitter.

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“It’s something Nolan wants to attempt to do, so we’re going to let him hit,” Martone said. “We’re really intrigued by the power in his game. He has some premium raw power and we’re going to see where it goes in professional baseball.”

Like most clubs, the Mets have never had a legitimate two-way Major Leaguer. None of their prospects are attempting the feat in the Minors. There’s a chance, at some point, that McLean could abandon this mission and end up full-time on the mound, where scouts believe he is a better prospect than at the plate.

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But it won’t happen now -- not with his skills in both arenas still so apparent. As a pitcher, McLean has reached the upper 90s with his fastball and the mid-80s with his slider, one of two breaking balls he possesses. He struck out 34 batters in 30 innings this season for Oklahoma State, mostly as a reliever.

At the plate, McLean is a power-hitting threat who bashed 36 home runs over three seasons in Stillwater, including 19 in 2022 -- a performance that prompted the Orioles to draft him in the third round last year (he did not sign, reportedly due to medical concerns).

“I think it’s pretty neat to see how he’s honed in on his craft and just focused on what the team needs,” one of McLean’s college teammates, Ryan Bogusz, told the Tulsa World earlier this year. “He’s throwing pitches that he not necessarily didn’t throw last spring. He’s just kind of going up there, carving, and then he’ll walk off the mound and hit a home run.”

Consider the Mets’ interest in McLean part of a trend around the game, beginning with Ohtani and Brendan McKay -- the latter a 2017 first-round pick for the Rays who has seen health issues limit his potential. More recently, the Giants have come to the forefront of this wave, selecting Reggie Crawford and Bryce Eldridge in the first round of consecutive Drafts and allowing both to continue as two-way players. Eldridge and McLean were two of the seven two-way players selected in this year’s event.

Comparing any of them to Ohtani can be a clunky exercise, as the Japanese superstar possesses obvious generational abilities that make him as unique a player as the sport has seen. But even a modestly successful two-way player can give his team significant flexibility.

At the very least, the Mets intend to give McLean a chance to be that sort of difference-maker.

“It takes the makeup of a player and the willingness to do it,” Mets director of amateur scouting Drew Toussaint said. “Just from our meetings with him, I think he has the makeup and the drive.”