After an impressive season debut with three scoreless innings, the New York Mets are rewarding top pitching prospect Jonah Tong with an appearance next week against the Cincinnati Reds, The Athletic learned Friday night.
The expectation is for Tong to pitch again for the Mets on Wednesday, according to a league source. The Mets haven’t publicly firmed up their rotation plans for their next five games. Their probable starters for Saturday and Sunday were listed as Freddy Peralta and Christian Scott, respectively. If they stayed in line, the next pitchers would have been Nolan McLean, Zach Thornton and David Peterson. The Mets are off on Thursday, and optioned Thornton to the minor leagues on Saturday.
In another move, the Mets promoted right-handed reliever Jonathan Pintaro from Triple A.
The Mets’ rotation is feeling the loss of Clay Holmes (fibula) to the injured list and needs someone to emerge. New York (22-29) is hopeful that the ceiling Tong showcased during a 2-1 loss to the Miami Marlins on Friday is here to last.
The Mets’ youth movement continued Friday when they recalled Tong from Triple A to help give their starting rotation a break.
With the Mets in a stretch of 16 straight days with a game, versatile reliever Tobias Myers started in the Mets’ loss against the Marlins. Myers pitched 1 1/3 innings before lefty Sean Manaea took over.
Manaea turned in his best performance of the season. In 3 2/3 innings, Manaea allowed one run to lower his ERA to 5.81. He struck out three without allowing a walk. Manaea’s fastball velocity — a season-long concern — perked up again; he averaged 91.7 mph on his heater, up 1.6 mph from his season average.
Tong, covering the final three innings, was also sharp. He didn’t allow a hit and walked one. Pitching with a noticeable intensity, he attacked with his fastball high in the strike zone and landed his secondary pitches.
To make room on the active roster for Tong (the right-hander was already on the 40-man roster), the Mets designated veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel for assignment. New York essentially telegraphed the move on Wednesday when it had the 37-year-old log 2 2/3 innings in a loss to save it from using anyone else.
Over 14 appearances and 15 innings with the Mets, Kimbrel, once one of the game’s great closers, had a 6.00 ERA. The Mets signed him to a minor-league deal, and though he failed to make the team out of spring training, he joined them in mid-April.
New York may soon need to make another move if they reinstate lefty reliever A.J. Minter from the 60-day injured list. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said earlier in the week that Minter would pitch once more over the weekend in Triple A and could be activated early next week.
Thus, Pintaro’s stay in the majors may be brief. Beyond him, they do not have obvious candidates to move down. The only other relievers who hold minor-league options on the active roster are Myers, Huascar Brazobán and Austin Warren, and all three right-handers are proving too valuable to send down.
Tong became the sixth rookie on the Mets’ active roster. Their rotation contained a hole after losing Holmes. They initially filled the spot in the rotation by calling up Thornton, a rookie. Since Holmes’ injury last week, length has lingered as an issue for the Mets’ rotation; no starter has logged six innings. They need someone to emerge.
In nine starts at Triple A this season, Tong holds a 5.68 ERA. His 32.7 percent strikeout rate ranks among the best in the minor leagues. But the impressive strikeout figure comes with a 14.3 percent walk rate, which ranks among the worst in the International League.
The Mets rushed Tong, 22, up to the majors last season after just two starts in Triple A because they were desperate for help in their rotation. His stint in the majors did not go well. Over five starts, he threw just 18 2/3 innings and had a 7.71 ERA. It was an aggressive assignment for someone who had thrown just 9 1/3 innings above A-ball coming into the 2025 season.