Jonah Tong has spent 2025 racking up punch out after punch out and establishing himself as one of many high pitching prospects in baseball. Now, the Markham, Ont., native will proceed his standout marketing campaign in the midst of a playoff race.
The New York Mets introduced Tuesday that Tong is ready to be promoted after two scoreless begins in triple-A and can take the ball for his MLB debut when the membership hosts the Miami Marlins on Friday.
Working with a trademark over-the-top supply, no MiLB pitcher has collected strikeouts fairly like Tong this season. The six-foot-one right-hander has set down a minor-league finest 179 hitters this summer time, carrying a 40.5 per cent strikeout fee in 113.2 innings of labor.
It has been a fast rise to the majors for Tong, who the Mets drafted within the seventh spherical of the 2022 MLB Draft. However with New York’s rotation struggling in latest weeks — the group owns a 4.86 ERA for the reason that all-star break — and in want of an additional arm, the 22-year-old Canuck will get the prospect to assist the Mets chase a post-season spot regardless of his quick stint in triple-A.
So, as Tong will get set to take the sphere in Queens for the primary time, here is the whole lot it is advisable learn about his journey to the majors.
Age: 22
Place: Proper-handed pitcher
Peak: Six-foot-one | Weight: 180 lbs
2025 Stats: 10 Wins | 113.2 IP | ERA: 1.43 | 1.66 FIP | 179 SO | 47 BB | .148 BAA | 0.92 WHIP
After a 2024 breakout that noticed Tong climb three ranges, closing the 12 months at double-A Binghamton, he was despatched again to the Rumble Ponies out of spring coaching and pitched his option to the doorstep of the majors.
A product of the Toronto Mets, who hung out on the Georgia Premier Academy and within the MLB Draft League earlier than being chosen by New York, Tong primarily makes use of a driving fastball and redesigned Vulcan changeup to assault hitters whereas mixing in a curveball and slider.
Tong’s fastball averaged 95.8 m.p.h. with 18.7 inches of induced vertical break throughout his triple-A outings, each of which make the pitch a licensed bat misser. In accordance with MLB.com‘s Sam Dykstra, the providing generated a 36.5 per cent whiff fee between each ranges in 2025.
Alongside including a few ticks to his fastball, discovering his changeup has helped Tong discover a new degree this season. The righty entered the 12 months together with his dropping curve as his most oft-thrown secondary, however Tong has leaned on the improved changeup because the 12 months has worn on, holding hitters of each handedness to sub-.200 averages with the providing.
“My dad and I, rising up, used to like watching movies on YouTube…,” Tong mentioned whereas showing on Blair & Barker earlier this summer time. “We sort of compiled completely different guys that we favored, (Greg) Maddux, Nolan Ryan, Jacob deGrom, however Tim Lincecum was the one that actually hit me, simply because it was sort of much like how I threw naturally.
“After which once I was youthful, my dad did not actually like once I threw sidearm, so I believed, ‘screw it, why do not I throw overhead to see if he’ll discover?'”
Like Lincecum, Tong options an excessive head whack and an arm angle which can rank among the many highest in MLB. It is a combo that clearly makes for a troublesome at-bat and deceives hitters.
Whereas Lincecum finally pale sharply after taking the game by storm within the late 2000s, he grew to become simply the eighth pitcher ever to win back-to-back Cy Youngs and tossed two no-hitters because the face of baseball in San Francisco.
The place Tong matches in New York
Because the Mets enter play Tuesday, they sit six video games again of the Philadelphia Phillies within the race for the NL East and a couple of.5 video games up on the Cincinnati Reds for the ultimate Nationwide League wild-card spot.
Even sitting within the playoff image, New York has struggled to a 15-19 file within the second half, shedding beginning pitching choices Frankie Montas, Griffin Canning and Christian Scott for the season. The crew has just lately returned Sean Manaea from the injured record and recalled Tong’s fellow prospect, Nolan McLean, from the minors to assist fill the void.
However with the raised stakes that arrive every September, the Mets want to run out their high 26 gamers every evening in an effort to safe a spot in October, which is a bunch they’re giving Tong the chance to interrupt into.
