Mets call up pitching prospect Jonah Tong to start Friday vs. Marlins
Mets pitcher Jonah Tong during a spring training workout in Port St. Lucie, Fla., on Feb. 19. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
Jonah Tong was the ball boy this past spring training. Friday against the Marlins, the Mets will be giving the boy the ball.
The Canadian righthander, 22, will make his major-league debut this coming weekend, just three years after being selected in the seventh round of the draft, manager Carlos Mendoza announced Tuesday.
Tong, who was a spring training non-roster invitee, began the season with Double-A Binghamton and made just two starts with Triple-A Syracuse before earning his promotion.
“Obviously, this is fast,” president of baseball operations David Stearns said Tuesday. “There’s no question this is fast. He’s pushed us on this because of his performance.”
How fast exactly? Well, consider that Mendoza first spoke to Tong this past spring training, during a minor-league game on one of Port St. Lucie's back fields.
Tong wasn’t pitching.
“He was a ball boy,” Mendoza said. “In the minor leagues, you’ve got to go through those duties, and that day, he was happy to be on the Triple-A bench, and he was a ball boy…Genuine, humble and you could just see the youth on his face. It was 10 minutes where we sat there and watched the game.”
Tong becomes the second prospect promoted to the rotation; Nolan McLean made his debut earlier this month and has dazzled in two starts. Tong’s role – and the status of the rotation as a whole – will be determined “turn by turn,” Stearns said. Mendoza called this an “opportunity” for the rookie, especially as the Mets have often preferred a six-man rotation, particularly as it relates to Kodai Senga, who has almost never thrown on regular rest.
“We’ve got to see it here [in the big leagues], but he dominated in the minor leagues and, when you keep getting those types of performances, it’s hard to ignore,” Mendoza said. “We’ve got to give the kid an opportunity… It’s hard to ask these guys to come up here and save us, if you want to call it [that]. It’s more like, go out there and be yourself. Don’t put extra pressure [on it]. But he earned it. He earned it, man, and I’m excited. We’re all excited.”
Tong, the organization’s No. 3 prospect, has a Tim Lincecum-style over-the-top delivery that induces a ton of movement on his mid-90s fastball, averaging more than 20 inches of induced vertical break, according to Baseball America. He has a plus-curveball, and has introduced a slider and changeup, the latter of which has showed significant progress, Stearns said.
Tong calls that pitch a “Vulcan changeup,” because the grip resembles the Vulcan “Live Long and Prosper” salute from "Star Trek"; he picked it up from a pitching Instagram account and has refined it with help from the Mets’ minor league coaching staff.
In 22 games between Double- and Triple-A this year, he’s 10-5 with a 1.43 ERA and averaged 14.2 strikeouts per nine innings. He pitched 11 2/3 scoreless innings in two starts at Triple-A, allowing eight hits with three walks and 17 strikeouts.
Like McLean before him, Mets’ player development has been impressed with his maturity and adaptability, especially when things aren’t going as expected. In McLean’s last start – one where he allowed two runs over seven innings in a win against Atlanta – Mendoza noted that the righty excelled despite not having his best sweeper early on.
As for Tong, “he really conquered everything we put in front of him,” Stearns said.
“We’ve seen outings that show tremendous maturity on the mound where if something is not working, he’s then able to switch approach and go to the slider more, throw a few more curveballs and allow himself to get through outings really successfully even if he’s not following the exact plan that he thought he was going to follow when he went into the game,” he added. “I think he’s done that in Triple-A in both starts. He’s had success in two straight starts in different ways, and that’s encouraging to see.”
Tong has focused on honing that part of the game – a product of a conversation with Double-A pitching coach AJ Sager.
“His main thing was, just keep it simple,” Tong said during the Futures Game media availability last month in Atlanta. “Don’t let the small things affect you. Just go out there and have fun. It’s a kid’s game.”
And now, it’s time to let the kid play, albeit it on the game's biggest stage.
Alvarez to rehab
After sustaining what seemed likely to be a season-ending torn UCL in his right thumb, Francisco Alvarez has bucked expectation and will begin a rehab assignment with Syracuse Wednesday. Alvarez said he has no pain hitting or throwing, but still has to acclimate to doing the latter with the splint he needs to wear; he’ll still require offseason surgery.
“Right now, I have all the confidence in the world,” Alvarez said via interpreter. “I don’t have any pain and if I end up coming back [and] it’s uncomfortable, obviously my confidence will dip a little bit…It’s been a difficult season for me to begin with. I got hurt in the beginning of the season. There’s been a lot of highs and lows. I got hurt last season as well. So I think if there’s an opportunity that I can come out and play, I’m going to try and play and give 100% to this team.”
Alvarez, whose early-season struggles earned him a demotion to Triple-A, has been one of the Mets best hitters since returning to the big leagues. In 21 games before the injury, sustained while sliding into a base, he slashed .323/.408/.645 with four homers and 13 RBIs.
Newsday's David Lennon contributed to this story
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
