There were moments in Jonah Tong's Friday night MLB debut when he absolutely looked like the elite prospect who spent most of 2025 striking out the world in the minors. And there were moments when he didn't look quite as sensational as fellow rookie Nolan McLean, as Tong found big league hitters a little more difficult to put away than Triple-A batters.
But what is inarguable is that Tong proved worthy of his callup in the Mets' 19-9 win over the Miami Marlins at Citi Field, delivering five strong innings and, beyond that, someone who will play a role in New York's suddenly re-energized championship pursuit.
Most telling in that regard was Carlos Mendoza's reaction to a question about whether Tong will stay in the rotation next time around.
"Oh, yeah," he said with a chuckle that indicated he felt it was a no-brainer.
The manager subsequently said that the Mets would stay in a six-man rotation for at least another go-round, with Tong's role beyond that still to be determined.
And that's really the heart of the matter. If Tong is a keeper, as he made it look Friday night, the Mets essentially now have two new impact arms, along with McLean, with perhaps a third one in Brandon Sproat, on the way fairly soon.
So what's the best way to utilize them?
Until further notice, McLean already is practically a lock to start a postseason game, assuming the Mets get there, to the point where David Peterson is really the only pitcher who has a case to slot in ahead of him.
McLean has been that good. And, at the very least, Tong and perhaps Sproat — soon enough, anyway — are quality arms that deepen the Mets' pool of pitchers needed to creatively strengthen their pitching as a whole.
They can stay in a six-man rotation, but that may not be the best strategy. So much depends on Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea do in their next couple of starts.
The Mets simply can't continue to piece together patchwork games if Senga and Manaea continue to struggle to get to the fifth inning and beyond. In that sense, something has to change — either use the likes of Tong and Sproat in a piggyback manner with the two veterans to seven or eight innings from two pitchers, or it could come to the point where Senga and Manaea are the bulk relievers doing the piggybacking for the young guys.
September is a day away, after all. There's no more time for hoping Senga and Manaea figure it out. And based on what McLean and Tong have done, it makes sense to take a look at Sproat now too, either as a starter or bulk reliever.
Most notably, there is now reason to believe the Mets have the ammunition to reload instantly on the pitching side. And beyond that, the overarching theme is the organization is again finally developing homegrown quality pitching for the first time in years, with Christian Scott ascending quickly last year before needing Tommy John surgery, and now McLean, Tong, and Sproat, with at least a few other high-ceiling talents on the way, according to scouts and evaluators.
Throw in Peterson, a former first-round pick who has developed into a very good starter the past two seasons, and for the first time in a decade the Mets are living up to their tradition as a pitching-first organization — something that's more crucial than ever these days, considering the cost of free-agent arms.
It's the key to sustained winning, which has been owner Steve Cohen's stated goal since he took over four years ago, and it also brings a sense of pride to the organization.
Consider what Marc Tramuta, who now works in the Toronto Blue Jays' front office but what was the Mets' scouting director when the team drafted Tong in 2022's seventh round, told me Friday:
"Since Jonah was called up, I've been getting texts from so many people I worked with when I was with the Mets," Tramuta said by phone. "It's really a win for the organization, the scouts, and especially the development side with this guy.
"Jonah wasn't real high on anybody's draft list, as a mostly unknown kid from the Toronto area. But at the time, we had a couple of guys — Marlin McPhail was the area scout and Doug Thurman was a national crosschecker — who saw the potential in Tong and really pushed us to draft him.
"You could see the comparison to Tim Lincecum even then, with the unique delivery, but nobody could have predicted he'd come so fast. When you draft a high school kid in the seventh round, you don't expect him to be leading the minors in strikeouts after a couple of years. So now I work for the Blue Jays and I've had fun reminding everyone here I drafted the kid from Toronto. Really, the young pitching you're seeing now is a testament to everybody working for the Mets."
That sense of pride extends to the fan base as well. Fans love nothing more than seeing a homegrown talent emerge, especially someone like Tong, a relatively low draft pick who has rocketed through the Mets’ system, creating huge hype with his strikeout total and the Lincecum comparisons.
As such, the ballpark was practically full Friday night well before the game began, as fans gave Tong a standing ovation as he walked from the bullpen to the dugout. And from there, he didn't disappoint, pitching effectively over five innings, getting six strikeouts while allowing no walks.
He allowed four runs but only because of back-to-back errors in the fifth by Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso. As a result, only one of the runs was earned, yet the extra 11 pitches that he needed to get out of the fifth likely cost him a chance to pitch into the sixth inning.
Most significantly, the potential for dominance was on display. He utilized a nice mix of his 95-to-97 mph fastball, his vulcan changeup, and an off-speed curveball that Mendoza said was especially impressive to him as the third pitch in his arsenal.
Beyond that, Mendoza and the Mets' players embraced the energy Tong's start provided, much the same as McLean, and the poise the 22-year-old showed, especially considering that he had waits of 25 and 27 minutes in the first two innings as the offense pounded Marlins' pitching for 12 runs.
"He embraced all of it," Mendoza said. "He's got the personality for it."
To that end, catcher Luis Torrens said, "He's already fitting in as one of the guys."
And then there was Brandon Nimmo, explaining to me that Tong is the real thing, throwing an elite fastball that has 23 inches of "induced vertical break," which Nimmo said is the technical definition for his seemingly rising fastball that gets on hitters quicker than they expect.
"He throws 97 (mph) with 23 inches of ride and hitters have a really hard time getting on top of that," Nimmo said. "So then they start cheating to get to the fastball and he throws the changeup that really plays, with elite velocity separation (from the fastball). It's super impressive.
"For guys like me and a lot of us in here, it's just been really fun to see these young guys come up and experience everything here for the first time. It brings a lot of energy to the clubhouse. It's just fantastic to see."
Yes, you could see and feel it at Citi Field from the moment when Tong took the mound. Together, he and McLean, along with the explosion of offense in August, have changed the feel of the Mets' season. After several weeks of that seemed to take the life out of the Mets' season, suddenly anything seems possible again.
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