MMO Exclusive: Pitching Prospect Jonah Tong

When right-handed pitcher Jonah Tong needs to reset on the mound, he’ll glance at the inside of his glove. There, a mantra is written that gives the 21-year-old perspective: Be like water.That quote was made famous by the great martial artist, actor and philosopher Bruce Lee, who preached adaptability. In Tong’s amateur and professional career, adapting has been a focal point.

Tong’s baseball career started with playing in Canada, where he was born and raised in Markham, Ontario. After graduating high school, Tong traveled to Arizona with other Canadians for an amateur baseball Pro Tour in 2022, where he got to play against professional players while facing competition from top-level Arizona JUCO colleges. From there, Tong got the invite to play at the Georgia Premier Academy in April and May, and later the MLB Draft League.

With a commitment to North Dakota State University, Tong ultimately altered that plan, as he was selected by the New York Mets in the seventh round of the 2022 MLB Draft and signed for the full slot value at $226,000.

After being limited to 21 innings in 2023, Tong got off to a fast start in 2024. In his first five appearances, Tong struck out 43 batters while allowing just two unearned runs—none earned!—over 23.2 innings. Over three levels in ’24, Tong tossed 113 innings with a 3.03 ERA. Among 313 minor league pitchers with a minimum of 100 innings pitched, Tong posted the sixth-highest strikeout rate (34.2 percent) and second-lowest fielding independent pitching (2.33).

Following the ’24 season, Tong went home to Canada for a bit but arrived back in Port St. Lucie in mid-January for a preseason camp. Noting the limited places to throw in Canada, Tong has enjoyed the ability to get his work in without weather limitations.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Tong in February, where he discussed his arsenal, studying major league pitchers and the mental side of the game.

MMO: Who were some of your favorite players growing up?

Tong: My favorite player used to be Brett Cecil. An odd one for a lot of people. I remember I went with my rookie travel ball team to this meet-and-greet with the Blue Jays. We got to take pictures with some of the players and went to the game. He was the first person I saw and was like, Wow! That’s a big-league pitcher right there.

Jacob deGrom was up there, and Tim Lincecum became a huge influence, as most people know.

MMO: Who introduced you to the game?

Tong: I always tell this funny story about how I woke up one day, and I was trying to find some sports place. I was going through the newspaper, and I saw this local T-Ball organization. I asked my parents if I could join, and their faces lit up. They said absolutely because they both have softball backgrounds. So, technically me, I guess, but my parents heavily influenced my career.

MMO: At what point during your development did you start to concentrate on pitching?

Tong: Since I knew I couldn’t hit! [Laughs.] My dad and I would get into some mini-arguments about me hitting because my dad always wanted me to be a two-way player in college and conquer the international scene. I said, ‘Dad, that’s just not happening.’

My middle sister played soccer and did gymnastics back home at the highest level you could for the longest time, and I was like, Okay, she’s not going to the Olympics for both of those.

He always wanted me to hit and have as many options as possible. When I was 16, I went on this fall tournament. I got caught stealing three times, and I tagged up on a ball that didn’t leave the infield. My coach looked at me and said, “Maybe we should do pitching.” My dad wasn’t fully sold, but that’s the story. [Laughs.]

MMO: That ended up being a good decision in the long run though.

Tong: I think so. Funny enough, my grandpa—out of nowhere this past season—came up to me and said, “Jonah, I think you should start hitting.” I said, ‘I don’t think that’s how it works.’ He said, “I think you could. Look at [Shohei] Ohtani!” And I went, ‘Yeah, okay, I think I’m good.’ [Laughs.]

If you need a bunt, I can do that. That’s pretty much it.

MMO: I found your path into professional baseball so interesting. For those who don’t know, can you talk about your journey from Canada to the States to eventually getting drafted by the Mets in 2022?

Tong: In the ’21 offseason, I started to work through everything. I just got into college, and then in January, I got invited to Arizona for this travel ball team from Canada. I went down and played a bunch of the spring training teams; it’s kind of like our [major league] spring training. At that point, I looked at my parents and said, ‘I don’t think it makes sense for me to ramp up for this and then all of a sudden just stop.’ I looked around, and I followed Georgia Premier, and I think Pro 5 because my buddy went there.

Georgia Premier hit me up after that and asked if I would consider coming down to play. I told them I would think about it. Then the Arizona thing happened, and I said, ‘I think this is a good opportunity for me to go and branch off on my own and start learning about who I am as a person, and see if I can do it.’ So I did that, and I had an awesome time.

The Draft League was kind of the same deal when the season ended in May and I wanted to find somewhere else to play before the draft. My agent made a few calls, and I ended up getting an opportunity to go to the Draft League. I met a lot of people, and it was a lot of fun.

I think that’s the place I learned that baseball is not going to be easy. You’re facing guys who are three or four years older, but you do learn a lot.

MMO: Were the Mets on your radar as a potential landing spot in the 2022 Draft?

Tong: Yeah, I was close with the area scout, Marlin McPhail, but I didn’t know that [he was with the Mets] at the time. I just saw a guy with an iconic bucket hat he wore everywhere he went.

I remember talking to him after my first start, and from there we just started talking more and more. He would ask how I was doing and adjusting and would ask me different situations. It was honestly refreshing to talk to somebody after being away from everybody I’ve ever known. To get to know somebody and pick his brain was the coolest thing.

I really didn’t know that I was going to go anywhere [in the draft] until late the night before when I started to hear a little bit more.

MMO: You mentioned being away from home and how big of an adjustment it was. Can you expand on some of those adjustments and challenges you faced?

Tong: Every stop I made, I had to learn something new. When I was in Arizona, I was with a few buddies from back home. In my first inning there, I walked five straight guys. I had no idea where it was going. I asked if I could go one more inning, and it was three-up-three-down with three punchouts against a junior college from Nebraska. And I was like, Alright, I’m just trying to get my feet wet. I was still having a lot of fun because I was with people I knew.

When I went to Georgia, I got picked up by the pastor of the academy and his wife. I thought it was a little different, but I was excited about a new challenge. I was dropped off at the academy in the middle of Statesboro, Georgia, which if you know where Statesboro, Georgia, is, is nothing crazy.

The first time I called my mom; I was just bawling my eyes out. I said, ‘Mom, I’m homesick, I can’t do this anymore.’ She was trying to walk me off the cliff and asked if I wanted to be picked up. I told her no, and that if I was going to go to college, I couldn’t be doing this. Shoot, if I’m going to play baseball, I can’t be doing this because you’re going to be put in situations like that. The next day I woke up and made some friends; the rest is history.

With the Draft League, the experience from the academy helped, and that just continued to where I’m at now. It all taught me to be flexible and open-minded because you don’t know where you’re going to be day-to-day.

MMO: One intriguing trait in your arsenal is the carry your four-seam fastball generates. When did you start to realize that your four-seamer has such rise, and how do you utilize that on the mound?

Tong: When I went to the Draft League, there was a tweet that went out with a highlight of what I did. Honestly, I thought I pitched horribly in my last game. It was not pretty. But they highlighted something called IVB, which stands for induced vertical break. The number was around 20, and I thought, Okay, that’s interesting, but I don’t know what that means. 

When we got to draft camp, they told me that my fastball had a pretty good amount of ride, and I told them I had no idea what that was. They took the time to explain it to me, and once I figured out what it was, I looked up some pitchers for inspiration. Tyler Glasnow was a big comp for fastball shape, I guess because I have more cut ride. I started to watch him and figured out where he pitched. I noticed that if it had ride, it would make sense to pitch up, which is exactly what they told me.

It’s been a big part of my game, especially going into this year, and trying to learn how to use that and pair it with my offspeed [pitches]. I think that’s why my curveball plays; even though it’s not the fastest pitch and not the nastiest thing in the world, there’s enough difference in movement.

MMO: Along with your four-seamer, you also feature a changeup, curveball and slider. Can you talk about the rest of your arsenal? Is it true that you learned your changeup and curveball grips from watching videos online?

Tong: Yeah! My dad and I used to throw across the street—we still do occasionally—and he said I should try and learn a curveball. Originally, I threw a knuckle curve, or so I thought. Basically, I had my two fingers on top, and I pushed it with my fingers. I thought it was a knuckleball, but it was really like a knuckle curve.

Fast forward, they told me that pitch was probably not going to play, and I should consider throwing a regular curveball. I scoured the internet, played around with some stuff, and looked at other pitchers. Clayton Kershaw was a big one; that’s a Hall of Fame curveball. I looked at that and made adjustments and didn’t really think about it for a while.

With my changeup, an influencer and former player with the Cardinals, Robby Rowland, had a video when I was nine or ten of him throwing a Vulcan changeup. I was like, Woah, Vulcan? That sounds sick! Why would I ever throw a circle changeup when I can throw a Vulcan? I tried to learn that, and my dad didn’t want me throwing a splitter at that age. So I thought, How can I mess with something that he can’t tell me I can’t do? The next best thing was this changeup. That developed over the years, and lately, we’ve been tweaking it and trying to improve it. We’ve seen some really interesting things with improving the shape.

The slider was something new. I remember in 2023, I felt like I couldn’t throw a strike. I remember walking into our pitching office, and I went, ‘We need something new because I’m frustrated.’ I was at the point in my career where I was just like, This sucks, and pitching is brutal right now. You go from a place of having so much success in high school, and then you’re challenged for the first time. Looking back at it now, it was probably the most influential year I’ve had up until this point, and we stumbled on a few things.

Going back to Tyler Glasnow, he had this short bullet slider that was gross. I was going to try to copy something like that; I kind of mirrored his arsenal. In developing that—it’s here and there—it’s been pretty consistent lately, which I’m happy about. I’m trying to use it as a bridge pitch because of my big curveball and rising fastball.

We tried working on a two-seamer, and it’s been interesting. It’s basically like, if Glasnow throws it, I’m trying it. [Laughs.] I’m trying to work on that. We’re focusing more on my consistency with the slider and changeup, and maybe we’ll bring in the two-seamer.

MMO: I interviewed Christian Scott recently, and he sang the praises of two developmental figures in the organization Kyle Rogers and Eric Jagers. What has been your relationship with the player development staff?

Tong: It wouldn’t be fair of me not to include everyone on our staff. There are honestly too many names, but guys like Dan McKinney, Garrett Baker, A. J. Sager, Luis Alvarado, Miguel Bonilla, Jagers and Rogers. Everybody has built this massive unit, and being able to pick their brains and learn from them put me in a good spot.

Rogers is awesome when it comes to dealing with your body and trying to figure out what you can do mechanically and pitch-wise. All of the other pitching coaches together have helped me out a lot.

The biggest mentor that I’ve had so far has been Garrett Baker; he’s our integration pitching coach. He loves this Bruce Lee saying: Be like water. You know, be adaptable. I’ve kind of taken that as my mantra. I’ve become close with him.

The biggest thing he’s taught me with everything in general is, yeah, things may suck right now, but how are you going to learn to adapt to it? You’re pitching in 115-degree heat in July, and it’s not ideal conditions. You go play in Brooklyn in April, and it’s 25 degrees, and Binghamton and the big leagues are the same. But the difference is there are more people on you, there’s added pressure, and things aren’t always going to go your way. Some things are just out of your control. How are you not going to let it affect you? You have to ride the wave. Just take it, react to it, be able to adjust, and remain the pitcher that you are.

That’s been the thing that I’ve been constantly learning the most, and it’s had the biggest impact on my career thus far. I think that has helped me transition from the ’23 season to the ’24 season, and now moving into ’25. It’s about looking at everything with a different perspective. How am I going to ride this wave? How am I going to continue to develop and not think the world is crashing when things aren’t going well?

MMO: You really seem to be in touch with the mental aspect of the game.

Tong: One hundred percent. It goes back to the Bruce Lee mantra; it’s on the inside of my glove, which is the coolest thing. When I look at it, it’s just where I need to be. We have to recognize that we are in the presence of some of the best players in the world. Being able to go to the field and get to throw with Christian Scott one day, or throw with Calvin Ziegler. Francisco Lindor is playing on the field next to us, or Jett Williams is right there hitting. Everybody together builds this unit, and you kind of take advantage of that.

I think being able to mentally understand that you don’t need to be someone bigger is the biggest challenge for me. I always felt like I needed to do something extra because some things weren’t going my way. Our mental performance team through the years has changed, but the people always have the same message: don’t be someone bigger than yourself. Be a good teammate, and things will work out in the way that they’re supposed to. I’m a firm believer in that. I have bad days and good days; it’s still a constant battle. Confidence can be a constant battle throughout my career.

I think for high school guys specifically, that’s the thing that we don’t recognize until it’s happening. To get out of something, and then once you’re out of it, you have a different perspective. It’s almost like you’re enlightened about it. If I could go back and talk to anybody, specifically myself, I’d say, ‘The faster you recognize that things aren’t going to go your way all the time and tackle the mental side of baseball, you can enjoy it so much more.’

MMO: One of the many investments Steve Cohen has made with this team is the pitching lab in Port St. Lucie. Have you had a chance to use it?

Tong: I’ve gotten to throw there a few times; it’s pretty cool. For a guy who knows nothing about what goes on, there are a lot of smart people around who make sure we have access to everything. I’m still learning what’s going on in there, because again, I’ll look in and be like, Oh, that’s new! What does that do? 

It really helps us as pitchers understand stuff that we can’t normally see from a biomechanical standpoint. I do find it interesting. It’ll be interesting to see how it translates over the next few years.

MMO: Is the lab available for pitchers to drop in at any point? Or, are there certain times that it’s available?

Tong: I’m honestly not sure. I know that we’ll throw in there a few times in the year, but everybody’s case is a little bit different. I’m sure if you’re working on something mechanically, that’s going to be your best place to get what you need.

MMO: You mentioned having control issues in 2023. Of course, it was a small sample size (21 innings). However, you went from a 22 percent walk rate to 10 percent over 113 innings in 2024. What adjustments were made?

Tong: Going back to Rogers, he kind of built our prior movement routine, and stuff like that. Baker kind of helped me realize that I have to be adaptable. Over the course of that entire season, we were trying to nail down my mechanics and make sure everything was repeatable. That’s the biggest word I was fed.

Going into the offseason, I took that and used some water bags or Orca bags, which are huge for me. Doing different plyo variations and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, which I think over time helped me be more resilient on the mound. As a result, the mechanics were cleaned up a bit.

I wouldn’t say there’s one specific fix; there were just a lot of things that slowly started to merge and click to kind of where we are right now. There’s still room to grow, but I like where we’re going from that.

MMO: You talked about your repertoire in a video for MLB Pipeline last year. In it, you mentioned that the curveball is the first pitch you throw in your bullpens before a game. Is that still the case? And how do you adjust if you don’t have a feel for that pitch on a given day?

Tong: I like to either start with it or end with it. Lately, it’s been ending with it because it’s more of a feel thing. For instance, in live BP, it’s always the funniest thing when it’s the last pitch, and even though I just want to throw a fastball to challenge myself, I throw an offspeed. I thought everyone gave me weird looks when I did that because they were expecting a fastball. And I was like, You know what? Let’s just make this a thing. 

Going into the season, that was one of those things I wanted to make sure I had a feel for. That helped me by throwing it as the last pitch. It just made me feel like I had this confidence. The last fastball is generally my best fastball in my sides or bullpens; not always, but mostly. Being able to change that up with my curveball can give me a little more confidence with it.

It’s funny that you asked if it makes me feel like I can throw it in the game. Yes and no. I think when I go into the game trusting it, it’s pretty good, and it does what I need it to do. When I get away from that or feel like I need to do something a little bit extra, that’s when we have different issues.

The big thing for me moving forward is making sure that when I throw it, I trust it. I remember watching a thing about Clayton Kershaw in an on-field interview. He was talking about tucking his curveball, gripping it really hard, and not having many thoughts on it because when he does that, it takes away from everything. And I was like, That’s a great point! I’ve been trying to work on that.

MMO: Throughout our chat, you’ve mentioned several big leaguers you’ve studied and taken bits and pieces from for your own game. Have you always been a student of the game?

Tong: I love telling the story about my dad and I watching videos of Tim Lincecum and my mom yelling downstairs because it was late on a school night. My dad instilled that in me. He’d be like, “Hey, come here,” and I’d be like, ‘Dad, I’m in the middle of an assignment.’ He’d say, “Come here, check this out: Greg Maddux.” He does everything for me. We watch it, understand it, pick his brain, and pick my brain. I think it slowly became something where he started to learn something and I did, which is kind of cool and beautiful now thinking about it.

When I was a kid, I didn’t think of it like that; I thought it was a waste of my time. But I started growing up and realizing the importance of it. I’m not the biggest guy on the field; I never have been and never will be. So being able to educate myself has been one of the biggest things in my career. Coming from Canada, we don’t play enough baseball just because of our climate compared to the American travel scene, so you kind of have to [be educated in the game].

Playing MLB The Show is a great example. It kind of teaches you more about the game and how you would pitch to people. I’ve always been a pretty good academic student, and studying is something I know, and I’m still improving with it. It’s funny; as you go up levels and start seeing different coaches, people, and styles, everything seems like one step, and everybody has their specialties. Getting a chance to be with A.J. [Sager] at the end of the year [with Binghamton] was pretty cool and something I was looking forward to in just learning from him and being more of a student of the game from that aspect.

MMO: You mentioned a few things that you’ve been working on with your slider and adding a two-seamer. Is there anything else you’re focusing on heading into 2025?

Tong: Just being present. I think that’s the thing I’ve been trying to focus on the most. It’s like, I’m here, soak it all up, be thankful every day, and thank God for the opportunities. That’s what I’m trying to focus on the most: realizing what we’re doing and how cool it is, and that’s what makes baseball fun. When we start thinking about it too much and putting more pressure on ourselves, that’s when we run into issues, and I did that all the time in ’23.

I’m going to continue the trend and focus on situation-based things. If we have a live BP, for instance, and my focus is working on early count curveballs. Yeah, it’s February. Did I do it all the time? No. But I got one of the six I tried, and that’s success. That’s a win. Everything is brick-by-brick, day-by-day because we’re not trying to be perfect in February.

The post MMO Exclusive: Pitching Prospect Jonah Tong appeared first on Metsmerized Online.