Nolan McLean continues to offer hope for Mets future with another strong outing despite terrifying collision in loss to Phillies

Nolan McLean wasn’t supposed to make his final Citi Field start of the year Thursday night.The hope was that the rookie right-hander would help pitch the Mets into October and be a part of a playoff run.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.

Those plans ended a while ago, and even McLean’s standout season wasn’t enough to get the Mets past their awful start.Still, as they look to the future and believe they’ve found some good young players in outfielders Carson Benge and A.J.Ewing, they’re also confident McLean can front a rotation that should also include pitchers with solid futures ahead of them, such as righty Christian Scott and lefty Zac Thornton.None is more important than McLean, who made his 30th start of the year Thursday night in the Mets’ 3-0 loss to the Phillies in the opener of their final home series of the season.

McLean enjoyed another quality start, holding the Phillies to one run over six innings, but suffered the loss and is now 11-10 with a solid 3.18 ERA.McLean was also involved in a harrowing collision with Jared Young in the sixth inning when he inadvertently struck Young with his knee, forcing the first baseman to exit the game and to be stretchered off the field before being taken to the hospital.Though his season ended on a tough note, McLean gave the Mets hope that he could be their ace of the future.No rookie pitcher in the National League has made more starts than McLean in 2026, and he also entered Thursday’s action with a league-high 166 ²/₃ innings and 184 strikeouts.As interim manager Andy Green noted before Thursday’s loss, it’s not enough for McLean, who is scheduled to make one more start on the road before the end of the year.“We’re encouraged he could handle that workload and demonstrate that durability,’’ Green said.

“Frankly, he pushed back on me when we didn’t give him a start [Wednesday on fo...