NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A few years ago, Jonah Tong was an undersized teenager from Markham, Ont., just hoping to find a place to play college ball.<\/p>\n
North Dakota State and Maine \u2014 not exactly big league hotbeds \u2014 were his best bets at the time. … Brrrr!<\/p>\n
Now, he\u2019s about to make his highly anticipated MLB debut in the heat of a pennant race on center stage in New York City.<\/p>\n
When the 22-year-old Tong takes the mound Friday night for the New York Mets against Miami, it will culminate a rapid and extraordinary rise from seventh-round draft pick to one of baseball\u2019s best pitching prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredible,\u201d Tong said Thursday in the Mets\u2019 clubhouse. \u201cIt\u2019s been a dream of mine ever since I was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n
After only two outings with Triple-A Syracuse, the Mets are promoting Tong to face the Marlins at Citi Field as New York tries to chase down the first-place Phillies in the NL East and expand its lead for the final National League wild card.<\/p>\n
During a stretch of 16 games without a day off, the Mets wanted to insert a sixth starter this time through the rotation \u2014 and Tong dominated minor league hitters so thoroughly that he became the choice even sooner than expected.<\/p>\n
The right-hander was completely surprised when he received the news from Syracuse manager Dick Scott a few days ago, just after throwing a bullpen. <\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely a crazy day, but it was awesome,\u201d a smiling Tong said.<\/p>\n
He called his mom and dad separately, and his father was so busy at work all he could offer was a quick congratulations over the phone before sending a longer written message later.<\/p>\n
Tong said his parents, grandfather, aunt, uncle, agent and girlfriend will all be in attendance Friday along with his first professional pitching coach, Garrett Baker.<\/p>\n
Depending upon performance, Tong could remain in the Mets\u2019 rotation down the stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just getting ready to start tomorrow, and everything after that will take care of itself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the second time in two weeks New York has decided to call up a top pitching prospect from Syracuse. <\/p>\n
Nolan McLean made his MLB debut Aug. 16 against Seattle and has provided a major boost, going 3-0 with a 0.89 ERA and 21 strikeouts while becoming the first Mets pitcher to win his first three big league starts.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s done a heck of a job,\u201d Tong said. \u201cHe\u2019s incredible. I think that I\u2019m just going to go up there and be myself, and I have confidence that\u2019s going to be enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tong\u2019s new No. 21 jersey hung from his locker Thursday in a corner of the Mets\u2019 clubhouse, separated by one stall from the No. 26 worn by McLean. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always good to get the youth in there,\u201d manager Carlos Mendoza said before his team\u2019s 7-4 loss to Miami. \u201cFamiliar faces, new faces, it creates a little bit of competition as well within that room \u2014 which is important.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I always see it as a positive, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing here with McLean. And hopefully that\u2019s the same case with Jonah.\u201d<\/p>\n
If he was nervous about his upcoming debut, Tong certainly didn\u2019t show it while answering questions from reporters. Seemingly at ease, he displayed a sense of humour and recounted his unorthodox career path.<\/p>\n
Tong, born and raised in Canada, travelled all the way to Georgia Premier Academy and the MLB Draft League to showcase his talents as a teenager. He was selected by the Mets in the 2022 amateur draft and really started to take off in the minors last year, when he pitched at three levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely not for everybody. It\u2019s definitely not like, I would say, the path I had growing up. I was even reflecting on it last night: My whole goal coming out of high school was to just get to college,\u201d Tong said. \u201cAnd then it was just, opportunities kept on happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listed at 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, the baby-faced Tong said he\u2019s gained 25 pounds since he was drafted \u2014 and it shows in his sturdy upper legs. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat helps. I was small as a kid who was just barely trying to find his way through,\u201d Tong said. \u201cI got a lot less comments about how skinny I was.\u201d <\/p>\n
This season, Tong went 8-5 with a 1.59 ERA and 162 strikeouts against 44 walks in 20 starts covering 102 innings at Double-A Binghamton. He was promoted to Triple-A on Aug. 11 and encountered little trouble there, too, going 2-0 with 17 strikeouts and three walks in 11 2\/3 scoreless innings.<\/p>\n
That left him leading all minor league pitchers in ERA and strikeouts this year. And his overpowering fastball earned him a nickname at Binghamton, with a signature T-shirt to go with it: The Canadian Cannon. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a huge surprise,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it was cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tong is rated the Mets\u2019 No. 4 prospect, one spot behind McLean, and 44th overall in baseball by MLB Pipeline. <\/p>\n
With his slight build and drastic over-the-top delivery, Tong has often drawn comparisons to Tim Lincecum, a two-time NL Cy Young Award winner and four-time All-Star with the Giants who pitched in the majors from 2007-16.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s deception there because of the way the ball comes out, and there\u2019s funk to it,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cHitters are not used to seeing that type of delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mike Fitzpatrick, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A few years ago, Jonah Tong was an undersized teenager from Markham, Ont., just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-105931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}