The Arrival of Jonah Tong

A few months after Jonah Tong struggled (10.80 ERA in three starts) in the MLB Draft League, at the behest of the New York Mets, scouting director Marc Tramuta, national crosschecker Doug Thurman and regional crosschecker Marlin McPhail, the young Canadian pitcher was drafted in the seventh round by the Mets.

One of the traits Tong is widely known for is his elite induced vertical break, which has made the pitch almost unhittable in the minors. However, when Tong started playing in the MLB Draft League, he didn’t know the specifics behind what made his fastball so good.

“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,” Tong told us before the 2025 season. “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.”

Prior to the 2025 season, the fastball had been effective even without premium velocity. The velo is up, though, this year, with him hitting 99 mph in his final start for Double-A Binghamton and hitting 98 mph in both of his starts for Triple-A Syracuse. Between Double-A and Triple-A, Tong generated a whiff rate of 36.5% against his fastball.

To go with his four-seamer, Tong’s best secondary is his vulcan changeup. He threw the pitch 32% of the time in his two starts in Triple-A, and it has helped him become Minor League Baseball’s best pitcher this year. The changeup sits in the mid-80s with 13-14 inches of armside movement. He threw 56 of them in his short Triple-A stint, and the pitch had a ridiculous 50% whiff rate.

To complete his arsenal, Tong uses a curve and a slider. The curve came from watching a video of Clayton Kershaw, and he went back to a video of Glasnow to work on his slider. He only used his slider 7% of the time in Triple-A and his curve 6%. The curve routinely gets over 60 inches of drop. He has also thrown a couple of cutters this year as he messed around with his slider.

Probably the trait Tong is most known for is his delivery. It does look like Tim Lincecum, and yes, he did watch videos of Lincecum to model himself after the former two-time Cy Young Award winner. The over-the-top delivery and above-average extension (which would be about the 90th percentile for MLBers), combined with two elite pitches, have made it hard for hitters to even produce contact against Tong. He’s also been equally hard for hitters of both sides of the plate to hit, with righties having a .437 OPS and lefties posting a .442 OPS against Tong.

Tong led the minors this year in multiple categories:

• 179 strikeouts
• 40.5 K%
• 29.9 K-BB%
• .148 average
• 1.43 ERA

As we’ve seen with fellow top pitching prospect Nolan McLean (and could soon see with Brandon Sproat), Tong also generates ground balls at a high rate of 52.9%. One of Tong’s weaknesses, to some extent, has been that he can lose the strike zone at times this year. Following a five-walk game on July 30, Tong has walked two and then zero in his final Double-A start, and then only three in his two Triple-A starts.

It’s a small sample; however, Tong throwing strikes in Triple-A with ABS and a major league ball gives me confidence he will continue to do so with the Mets. McLean has shone in his first three games in the majors, and I believe Tong is going to do the same as they both help the Mets towards a playoff berth.

“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,” Tong said.

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