recently ranked him<\/a> the organization\u2019s No. 3 prospect behind McLean and Carson Benge. Plus, he certainly showed flashes of enormous potential in the big leagues \u2014 just a lack of consistency. In two of his five starts, he dominated by throwing at least five innings and allowing no more than one run. But in the other three starts, he simply couldn\u2019t stop the bleeding, allowing a total of 15 runs in just 13 innings. Being able to make in-game adjustments and limit damage in those outings is exactly what Triple-A is for, no matter how good a player\u2019s stuff is. And lucky for Tong, his stuff is exceptionally good.<\/p>\nIn addition to giving us a sneak preview of Tong on the Citi Field mound, his stint in the majors last season gave us a closer look at just how elite his arsenal can be. According to Statcast, his lively four-seam fastball only drops 10.7 inches. Tong\u2019s curveball, meanwhile, averaged a whopping 62.7 inches of vertical drop. That\u2019s almost as much drop as Jose Altuve\u2019s height. Weighted for velocity and extension, the vertical movement on Tong\u2019s fastball and curveball would have both ranked first among all right-handed starting pitchers in the majors had he thrown enough to qualify. Then there\u2019s Tong\u2019s changeup, a pitch which yielded a .227 opponent batting average and 22.2% Whiff. This spring, he\u2019s been working to further develop a cutter, an evolution of the slider that he\u2019s previously thrown.<\/p>\n
The pieces of the puzzle are all there. One day Tong will be able to fit everything together at the major league level, but for now, he\u2019s still honing his repertoire, stamina, and command. Perhaps he\u2019ll dominate out of the gate, and by mid-May the organization will feel he\u2019s ready for another crack at The Show. Perhaps he\u2019ll need to take one step back to take two steps forward, and we won\u2019t see Tong again until late in the summer, if at all this season.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s easy to dream of the homegrown duo of McLean and Tong carrying the Mets to victory in 2026. While it\u2019s unfair to put that kind of pressure on anyone, much less two players who have a combined 13 starts in the majors, at least McLean\u2019s 2025 performance and minor league experience make such expectations a smidgen more realistic. Tong\u2019s ceiling is still just as high as his Lincecum-esque armslot, but we shouldn\u2019t expect him to grasp all of that potential in 2026. Patience is a difficult virtue to maintain in baseball, but when it comes to prospects, patience is sometimes a practical necessity.<\/p>\n
If Tong displays more consistency in even just a handful of starts at the major league level in 2026, it will be a successful step forward for the young right-hander. For now, he should get the time he deserves to hone his craft in Triple-A before returning to the Big Apple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonah Tong\u2019s 2025 campaign was about as strong an advertisement for Triple-A baseball as one can make. Tong…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[56393,13822,77258,10601,75876,23560,42230,363,226858,56394,99,38519,117120,61187],"class_list":{"0":"post-496036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-brandon-sproat","9":"tag-jacob-degrom","10":"tag-jonah-tong","11":"tag-jose-altuve","12":"tag-matt-harvey","13":"tag-mets","14":"tag-minor-league","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-noah-syndergaard","17":"tag-nolan-mclean","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-steven-matz","20":"tag-trey-yesavage","21":"tag-zack-wheeler"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}