This story was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
NEW YORK -- The fact that the Mets are promoting 22-year-old pitching sensation Jonah Tong to start Friday against the Marlins, president of baseball operations David Stearns said, came as a surprise even to him -- the person who made that decision. As a general guideline, the Mets like to take their pitching prospects along slowly. Tong’s promotion was an outlier.
Turns out he didn’t see it coming either.
“No,” Tong said with a laugh when asked if he expected to be standing in the Citi Field clubhouse this week. “That’s pretty much no. Not at all.”
Despite their hesitance, the Mets chose to promote Tong for two primary reasons. One is that he’s been virtually unhittable for the better part of two seasons, rising from an unranked prospect at the start of last year to become the Mets’ No. 4 prospect (and No. 44 in baseball) right now. He has a 1.43 ERA over two Minor League levels and was unscored upon over two starts with Triple-A Syracuse. He leads the Minors in strikeouts.
Even that might not have been enough, however, had circumstances been less than ideal. The team is midway through a stretch of 16 games in 16 days. Outside of Nolan McLean, another top prospect who debuted earlier this month, their starting pitchers have not provided much length or effectiveness.
Given all that, team officials wanted to insert a sixth starter at some point during this stretch. With the way he was pitching, Tong made the most sense.
Now, he simply needs to continue performing like he was in the Minors, all while doing his best to ignore the outsized expectations surrounding his debut.
“It’s been a dream of mine ever since I was a kid,” Tong said. “If you’re asking me at the beginning of the year if I ever thought this was going to happen, I would have probably told you exactly what I’m telling you now: I’m just going to be where my feet are. I think everything else is going to take care of itself.”
A gregarious Canadian, Tong has earned high grades throughout his Minor League career for his makeup, which team officials believe can help him on this journey. Already, Tong has overcome the perception that he’s too lithe or skinny to succeed as a pitcher. Since the Mets drafted him in the seventh round in 2022, Tong has packed on 25 pounds of muscle. While he doesn’t believe that’s helped him throw any harder, he does consider it a significant aid in withstanding the rigors of a long, hot summer.
Tong has other factors working to his advantage, as well -- most notably a high three-quarters slot delivery that hitters don’t see often.
“You don’t see too many guys with that type of delivery,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “There’s deception there because of the way the ball comes out. There’s funk to it. Hitters are not used to seeing that type of delivery.”
Much as he did before McLean’s debut, Mendoza cautioned against anointing Tong a savior before he’s even thrown a Major League pitch. As good as his upper-Minors numbers might be, he’s still a young, untested pitcher. His debut could go in any number of directions.
But Mendoza also understands how important Tong can be. This spring, the manager was on a back field when he noticed Tong serving as a ballboy for a Minor League game. Recognizing one of his organization’s top pitching prospects, Mendoza walked over to introduce himself.
“My face just went beet-red. My hands went incredibly sweaty,” Tong said. “And I just went, ‘Hi, I’m Jonah. Nice to meet you.’ But it was awesome. I think getting to know him a little bit more in that brief conversation was really cool.”