Nolan McLean has been one of the fastest risers in the baseball world over the past year. The New York Mets prospect made his debut late in the 2025 season and was stellar in his eight starts, racking up a 2.06 ERA while walking 16 and striking out 57 in 48.0 innings of work. He’s set to make his second start of 2026 tonight when the Mets travel for a 10:15 p.m. ET date against the San Francisco Giants.
Below, I’ve taken a look at McLean’s strikeouts prop on DraftKings Sportsbook and offered my prediction as to whether or not he’ll get there.
Nolan McLean Strikeouts Prop
McLean’s strikeouts prop is set to 5.5 at DraftKings Sportsbook, with -128 odds that he’ll throw at least six and +101 odds that he’ll record five or fewer.
McLean had a strong season debut in New York’s extra-innings loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 29, tossing five innings of four-hit, two-run ball while not walking a batter and striking out eight. His eight punchouts were tied for the second-highest total of his career, matching his debut and falling just shy of the 11 that he recorded in his final outing of the 2025 season. He also had eight strikeouts in 7.2 innings during the World Baseball Classic, including four in the final.
The 24-year-old has elite stuff. Though he didn’t pitch enough innings to qualify for Statcast leaderboards during his rookie season, his 28.4% whiff percentage and 30.3% strikeout percentage would’ve ranked among the top tertile among qualified pitchers. He also had the league’s highest spin rates on his curveball, per Baseball Savant, and one of the pitchers with the most similar pitch profile was Zack Wheeler, who led the league in strikeouts before being shut down with a blood clot in his shoulder.
Nolan McLean picks, predictions
McLean has a decent matchup tonight. Last season, San Francisco finished 12th in the league in strikeouts, and it has been fanned the 11th-most times so far this season. In part, that’s because the Giants had a patient plate approach; while they whiffed at a below-average rate, they also swung at pitches in the zone at among the lowest rates, so McLean could rack up strikeouts looking.
To be fair, San Francisco filled a hole in its lineup by signing Luis Arráez, whose only major strength as a batter is his ability to avoid strikeouts, but every other member of the lineup besides Arráez and Jung Hoo Lee had an above-average strikeout rate in 2025. The Giants were also far worse against power pitchers than finesse pitchers last season, which should allow McLean to stay in the game long enough to rack up K’s.
Best Bet: Nolan McLean O5.5 Strikeouts (-128)
