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Jonah Tong’s strong finish a nice springboard into fight for 2027 rotation spot
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- Jonah Tong’s strong finish a nice springboard into fight for 2027 rotation spot
Jonah Tong 's 2026 season didn't quite go as planned.
Working through some tweaks to his arsenal and changes in his mechanics, the Mets ' top-ranked pitching prospect was knocked around a bit at the Triple-A level.
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Between the majors and minors, he pitched to a 5.27 ERA over his first 22 outings.
Tong continued to battle his way through those struggles, though, and began finding his groove down the stretch in the minor league season. He finally earned himself another call back up to audition for a spot in the Mets ' rotation, and certainly gave himself an encouraging sample to build off of.
The right-hander enjoyed one of his best showings Saturday against the Nationals , closing his season by allowing just one run while striking out a career-high nine batters over five innings. He worked around trouble in the third, and held Washington just one walk and three hits.
"I thought it was great," manager Andy Greensaid. "Really encouraged by it -- the changeup was back in the mix, I thought curveball was good, he won with the fastball up in the zone -- that's a really good version of him and a great way for him to end the season."
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Despite the rough start to the year, the crafty 23-year-old certainly was able to close things out strong. He finished the campaign with a 2.36 ERA over his final eight appearances, and struck out a total of 27 batters across 20.2 MLB innings during the final month of the season.
Destined to battle for a spot in the big-league rotation during spring training, Tong will now look to use this late-season success as a springboard heading into what could be a long offseason.
"It's one of those things where the moment is going to let you know," he said. "I'm not going to put pressure on myself, I'm up for the challenge -- I know where I'm at, I know what I need to do -- that's the beauty of the offseason, I can just go out, compete, have fun, and let everything else take care of itself."
Even if Tong doesn't make the team out of camp, Green expects him to play a big role.
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"We've been forthright with him," the skipper explained. "What does an organization desperately need to win a World Series? You need guys that are six and seven starters that start the year in Triple-A that can come up and dominate -- you don't win a World Series with only five starters.
"In that case, his desires don't perfectly align with what our desires would be, because he wants to be here -- his job is to make it so freaking obvious to us that he deserves to be here that we can't make those types of decisions when he comes and competes in spring training," Green continued.
"He has a full understanding of what that landscape looks like, a full understanding of what makes sense for us, and the resolve to go prove that he belongs here -- long-term, I'm a huge believer in Jonah, I think he's going to be a huge piece for us moving forward."
