PORT ST. LUCIE – As spring training moments go, lighthearted yet also telling, this was a classic.
It was merely a live BP session just after noon, routine for mid-to-late February, yet it turned into a high-intensity confrontation between Juan Soto and Nolan McLean that featured a humorous rock-paper-scissors exchange and then a prideful nine-pitch at-bat in which McLean’s competitiveness, in particular, showed its teeth.
“Special, right?” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said afterward. “That’s what elite players do.”
Chronologically, it’s early in McLean’s career to put the elite label on him, but no one would argue with it either, after his spectacular six weeks in the big leagues late last season.
And Soto is Soto. McLean was pumped just to be squaring off with him.
“It’s the first time I’ve faced him,” McLean said. “It’s really cool because I grew up watching a lot of his games. He’s one of the best hitters in baseball.”
In Soto’s first at-bat on Friday, McLean got a cutter in on his hands just enough to produce a lazy fly ball to center.
The second at-bat is where things got interesting.
With a 1-0 count, McLean threw a fastball that was a borderline strike on the inside corner at the knees. When the umpire, who was actually Mets’ catching coach JP Arencibia on the day, called it a ball, the catcher tapped his helmet, an indication he was challenging the call.
The video image appeared within seconds on the outfield scoreboard, which will be the case when the system is used for regular-season games for the first time. Yet the edge of the ball was so close to the edge of the plate as to be practically indistinguishable, as both players lobbied verbally for the call.
When the consensus from the dugout seemed to convince Arencibia it was a ball, McLean disagreed.
“That’s who he is,” Mendoza said of McLean. “Both guys, really. They’re not going to give an inch.”
Arencibia didn’t seem sure how to proceed. Meanwhile, McLean and Soto made eye contact and seemed to instantly decide there was only one way to settle this, with a round of rock-paper-scissors.
Both threw a hand. Both laughed, as did their teammates watching in the dugout, as Soto prevailed.
Yet it likely made the ultra-competitive McLean even more determined. As in, “Oh yeah, watch this.”
Indeed, McLean, the master of spin-rate deception and owner of about 1,000 different pitches, proceeded to throw seven straight fastballs in what became a nine-pitch battle, with Soto fouling off five of those seven before pounding the last one into the ground, a high chopper to the first baseman for an out.
“You just wanted to challenge him?” I asked McLean afterward.
“You never want to give in,” he said.
In his group interview in the clubhouse, McLean said, “We’re both competitive. You want to win anytime you’re on the mound or in the box.
“It’s good to face hitters like that this early in spring. Anytime I can pitch to him and pick his brain about what he’s seeing, it’s great.”
When asked what Soto told him, McLean smiled. “He said, ‘I was waiting for some kind of spin, but you never threw it to me.’ I guess I was playing a little bit of mind games with him. It was fun.’’
Mendoza, watching from the dugout, said he loved it.
“You could see it meant something to them,” he said. “You start to see McLean’s velo get up a tick, and Juan is like, ‘I’m going to get you.' It was kind of like that game between the pitcher and hitter.”
Mendoza didn’t seem sure whether the challenge video made for a strike or a ball, and said, “They were both fighting for the pitch, so it was like, ‘let’s compete right here.’ It was just fun.”
Soto, who stopped at his locker only briefly enough to be asked about the rock-paper-scissors drama, said, “There’s a first time for everything.”
In the end, it was all essentially inconsequential. Except that it probably wasn’t to McLean.
“There’s always pride at stake,” he said.
Then he laughed and said, “Juan’s got pretty good eyes, so I probably should have just taken his word for it.”
Except as the Mets and their fans are finding out, it’s not McLean’s way, which is at least partly why the expectations are so high for him to follow up his brilliant stint last season with more dominance. That and the electric stuff he was featuring on Friday as well.
As pitching coach Justin Willard described McLean to me, “He’s got the ability to throw nasty stuff in the zone at a high level and the bulldog mentality of, ‘I’m going to go compete against anybody: me vs. you, let’s go.'”
A little mano a mano. Even in February, it can be revealing.