Team USA turns to Mets’ Nolan McLean to start World Baseball Classic final: ‘He’s built for this’
· Yahoo Sports
Nolan McLean is ready for this moment.
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With a World Baseball Classic championship on the line, Team USA is turning to the standout Mets rookie to start Tuesday night’s final at LoanDepot Park in Miami.
McLean wouldn’t have it any other way.
“If you work your whole life at something, you want to be put in these spots,” McLean said Monday. “It’s just a dream come true to be able to get the ball in such a big moment.”
McLean’s comments came hours before Team Italy and Team Venezuela squared off in the semifinals on Monday night, so the right-hander didn’t yet know whom he would be facing in Tuesday’s winner-take-all tilt.
But what was certain was McLean’s confidence. That much was clear before the WBC even started.
At the time, Team USA hitting coach Matt Holliday advocated for McLean, even though the right-hander has made only eight MLB starts in his career.
Holliday, a native of Stillwater, Okla., was a volunteer assistant coach at Oklahoma State when McLean played there, so he knew a thing or two about the 24-year-old’s intangibles.
“Matt called me multiple times and was like, ‘He’s built for this,’” Team USA manager Mark DeRosa said.
DeRosa came to the same conclusion after his initial conversation with McLean, who went 5-1 with a 2.06 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 48 innings after making his MLB debut in August.
McLean is part of a Team USA rotation that has also featured All-Star aces Logan Webb, Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes in this tournament.
But Skubal — the back-to-back AL Cy Young Award winner and an impending free agent poised for a historic payday — started one game in the pool-play round before removing himself from the roster.
And Skenes, the reigning NL Cy Young winner, pitched in Sunday night’s 2-1 semifinal win over Team Dominican Republic, a tournament favorite featuring the likes of Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Junior Caminero.
That paved the way for McLean to start Tuesday — a decision DeRosa said stemmed from McLean’s “desire to want to do this.”
“I just think he’s built for this,” DeRosa said. “His mindset, his stuff, his want, all of it led to him being a part of this team.”
It’s been a roller-coaster WBC experience for McLean, who reported to Team USA later than expected after experiencing vertigo-like symptoms at Mets camp.
McLean then took the loss in his first WBC start, surrendering three runs over three innings in Team USA’s 8-6 defeat by Team Italy during pool play.
But McLean, who is expected to be available for 65-70 pitches, could immortalize himself as a Team USA hero with a strong performance Tuesday.
“I think you’re crazy if you don’t want to do this,” McLean said. “Getting the opportunity to put ‘USA’ on your chest with the best players in the world, it’s honestly an unbelievable experience for me.”
McLean is hardly the only New York athlete with a chance to leave an imprint on Tuesday’s final.
Yankees slugger Aaron Judge is the Team USA captain and enters Tuesday with a .250 average, two home runs, five RBI and a .979 OPS in the WBC — not to mention numerous defensive highlights.
Yankees closer David Bednar has hurled four scoreless innings with eight strikeouts — none bigger than his back-to-back Ks of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Ketel Marte to escape a seventh-inning jam in Sunday’s win.
And left-handed Yankees reliever Tim Hill joined the U.S. roster last week, though he is yet to appear in a game. The Mets’ Clay Holmes and the Yankees’ Ryan Yarbrough both pitched for Team USA in previous rounds before coming off of the active roster.
The Team USA staff includes longtime Yankees star Andy Pettitte as the pitching coach, while Holliday played for the Yankees in 2017.
All of them are part of the United States’ collective mission to win its second-ever WBC title, and its first since 2017.
“My mindset is to just motivate the guys around me, try to challenge the guys around me, and just bring the best out of them,” Judge said Sunday.
“That’s what it’s all about; it’s about a team unit. … It’s about all of us pulling on the same rope. And if you’ve got everybody in that clubhouse doing the same thing, good things are going to happen.”
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