Jonah Tong to Start for Mets on Friday

The Mets are calling up prized pitching prospect Jonah Tong to the majors, Will Sammon of The Athletic reports. This move comes just over two weeks after the 22-year-old was promoted to Triple-A Syracuse. Tong is slated to start on Friday against the Marlins, Carlos Mendoza said.

Tong is a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport, ranking as high as No. 20 on Baseball Prospectus’ Midseason Top 50 rankings. ESPN recently ranked him at No. 21, while Baseball America and MLB Pipeline had him at 43 and 44, respectively. The Canadian righty dominated in Double-A Binghamton, posting a 1.76 ERA with a whopping 162 strikeouts against 44 walks over 102 innings before earning the call to Syracuse. In two Triple-A starts, Tong kept on dealing, striking out 17 batters against just three walks in 11 2/3 scoreless innings. Tong currently leads MiLB in strikeouts and was named to the Futures Game alongside Carson Benge.

“I think it’s all about him dominating the minor leagues,” Mendoza said. “You could make the case, all right, he’s (in) Double-A, maybe you want to give him a better look at the Triple-A level, but man, a couple of outings, and you know, it’s hard to keep him there.”

This move allows the Mets to move to a six-man rotation during their stretch of 16 games in 16 days, which ends next Thursday.

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