Mets' Nolan McLean, Carson Benge have that 'it' factor, just ask their college coach

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — There's a photo from the World Baseball Classic of three Team USA pitchers on the top step of the dugout, backs turned to the camera. The jerseys read: Skubal, Skenes, McLean.

In other words, three Cy Young awards, and Nolan McLean, who has thrown 48 major-league innings.

Over 100 miles up the Gold Coast, there’s a different image, though akin in spirit. Carson Benge is making things happen, despite the attention that comes with the Mets front office saying he could very well be their starting rightfielder.

On Monday against the Marlins, he went 2-for-3 with a triple and three RBIs, the latest stanza in an impressive spring training. Against the Yankees on Sunday, he poked balls past infielders with pesky consistency — more worried about making contact and making things happen than launching a ball into the stands.

And by Tuesday, McLean was getting set to start for Team USA against Italy in their final game of pool play, with the promise that he would take the ball in the WBC finale were his team to make it that far.

There are plenty of similarities between McLean and Benge. They were teammates at Oklahoma State and they both came up as two-way players, but there’s an even greater through line.

“He’s a competitor,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said, referencing McLean.

Benge is, too. That’s not really the surprising part — they’re professional athletes, after all. But McLean and Benge have done it, and are doing it, under immense amounts of pressure.

“Their distinguishing characteristic is mentality,” Oklahoma State baseball coach Josh Holliday told Newsday in a phone interview. “I don’t think either of these kids were products of the system” that churns out baseball players in optimized but predictable ways. “But what’s the carrying gene that allows them [both to excel in big moments]? I don’t know.”

And these moments are big enough to give even experienced ballplayers pause.

McLean burst onto the scene last year and, as a rookie, was basically tasked with trying to save the Mets' season. No one can deny that without him, they wouldn’t have gotten as close to the playoffs as they did. This year, with only eight major-league starts to his name, he was tagged by Team USA manager Mark DeRosa, who penciled in McLean to start the finale before the tournament even began. (Skubal, Logan Webb and Skenes have schedules that preclude them from the honor, but there were plenty of other options, too.)

Benge, who started last season with High-A Brooklyn, has been on every radar for a few months. It started when president of baseball operations David Stearns said the 23-year-old had a real shot at the Opening Day roster, and expressed confidence that Benge would impact the major-league club this year regardless. All that meant the stakes were incredibly high before Benge even stepped foot into Clover Park; he's answered the call, slashing .391/.440/.478 in eight Grapefruit League games, with four RBIs, a walk and four strikeouts.

Upon reflection, Holliday does have some theories as to why his two college stars can pull this off. For all their similarities, McLean and Benge come by their fortitude by very different means.

“Nolan has been good at everything he’s ever done,” Holliday said. “This kid’s never walked into a gymnasium, a football field or a baseball field where he wasn’t the best player. So, this is an extension of his athletic experience . . . McLean is as strong and talented and skilled and powerful as any 23 or 24-year-old in the game right now and he knows that, and yet, he’s a pretty humble kid. But you can bet your tail he’s going to go out there . . . and he’s going to go after it.

“ . . . And there’s Carson, and Carson is the opposite.”

Sure, he’s talented in myriad ways — “when Carson came around, he, like Nolan, could pretty much do everything on the field,” Holliday said — but he “wasn’t a national commodity” because, unlike many kids earmarked for the major leagues, Benge never did the showcase circuit. He preferred to play in-state, focus on high school baseball, and then play with his summer team.

“He’s never been one to get too caught up in anything,” Holliday said. “He’s just quietly proved himself and this is the next step in who he is. He’s not going to overthink it. He’s going to see the ball and he’s going to hit it. He’s going to take off for a ball in the gap and make a play. He’s going to compete his tail off.”

Both are throwbacks, but in their own ways. Despite his intense preparation and interest in analytics, McLean has an "everything but the kitchen sink" arsenal that’s not overly reliant on velocity. He has a cerebral approach, honed by his years as a batter, and uses movement, deception and plain old "stuff" to win his battles. In the era of launch angles and hard-hit rates, Benge, a lefty, “hits the ball to all fields like a guy who would have played in the 1980s chasing a batting championship,” Holliday said. “He’s a very unique hitter with elite hand-eye coordination. He’s very much a traditional, old-fashioned ballplayer.”

Or, to quote Benge himself, “Anything to not strike out.”

It’s funny, too. Originally, McLean's power seemed destined to make him a major-league hitter. Before Tommy John surgery meant more playing time in the infield, Benge looked as if he would end up pitching. Both simply adapted in their own ways, and when the spotlight started shining, they handled that in their own ways, too.

Between the two, McLean is fire, and Benge is ice. But the result is the same.

“Nolan is crazy, crazy competitive,” Holliday said. “He’s extremely confident in a good way.”

And Benge? He "is a remarkable performer . . . the difference in him is, I don’t think he takes the highs real high or the lows real low. I don’t think he ever shifts his focus. He’s a pretty even-keeled kid.”

Which, by the way, plays pretty well when you don’t know if you’ll be playing in Syracuse next month, or in Flushing.

“When I saw Carson this winter and I said, ‘Hey, I saw the GM made a comment that the door might be open for you.’ And he said, ‘Why not me?’ " Holliday said. "I don’t think he’s one of those guys who’s going to overthink this or get caught up in a lot of unnecessary mumbo-jumbo. He’s going to go out on the field and earn it, and if he doesn’t, he’ll go to Triple-A and when his time comes, he’ll be there.”

So will McLean — the ying to his yang, the ice to his fire. And potentially a big part of what the Mets hope to accomplish.

Tong optioned

Jonah Tong was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse Tuesday, trimming the Mets' spring training roster to 63. “He’s going to continue to work on his pitches, especially the secondary pitches,” Mendoza said. “He’s going to pitch for us. He’s a big part of what we’re trying to do here and he’s going to go down there and continue to develop and work on some of the things that he needs to work on. I was excited about what we saw here in camp — his work, his progression — and now he’s got to continue to go down there and continue to do that.”

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.