Laura Albanese: Mets' Jonah Tong shows fight, ability to counterpunch
Mets starting pitcher Jonah Tong throws during the first inning of a game against the Miami Marlins on Monday in Miami. Credit: AP/Lynne Sladky
He could have fallen apart.
If you look at Jonah Tong’s line in the Mets’ 9-4 win over the Marlins in Monday’s Labor Day matinee in Miami, you might be unimpressed. He allowed four runs and four hits with a walk and seven strikeouts in five innings.
And when Tong gave up a three-run homer by Graham Pauley in a four-run second, ceding what had been a 3-0 Mets lead, he looked as if he had been punched squarely in the gut.
In Tong’s delivery, he buckles in half when he lands, meaning he was bent over and could only raise his eyes as the ball squeaked over the wall.
But then he stood up tall. He didn’t look anguished as he circled the mound and grabbed the rosin bag. He looked annoyed.
So Tong — the 23-year-old who was fast-tracked to the majors in the waning months of a catastrophic 2025 collapse in what felt akin to a ritual sacrifice — brushed himself off and proceeded to go fishing.
He got Joe Mack to fly out, struck out Kyle Stowers to end the inning and stopped nibbling around the edges. He retired the Marlins on six pitches in the third. He challenged them and allowed only two baserunners after the homer — a single and a hit batsman.
It was diametrically opposed to what we saw last season, when Tong at times would let small spirals turn into cataclysmic tailspins.
In that way, his second-inning failure and subsequent recovery felt more valuable than five scoreless innings would have been. That’s true in the same way that pitching to a 6.43 ERA in the six starts after his demotion in early June made the 2.20 ERA he carried in the eight Triple-A starts after that more important.
“I think you get stronger through adversity if you use it appropriately,” interim manager Andy Green had said. “We don’t look at tough stretches as losses or failure. We look at it as learnings that you stand on to go to your next level of greatness. Every single thing you go through makes you more prepared for what you go through next in life.
“This is harder here. This level is tough. It’s the toughest level that exists. So what he went through this year prepares him for the toughness that this level brings.”
Tong’s teammates rewarded him, reclaiming the lead in the fourth. What could have felt catastrophic for a blue-chip prospect who saw his star fall slightly this year instead became further evidence of what Tong has more fully embraced this season, something that might be the key to making him an asset to this rotation next year.
Isn’t that a tantalizing idea?
President of baseball operations David Stearns earlier noted that the first months of this season further proved that “you can never have too much starting pitching.” And while that certainly is true, if Tong can spend the next few weeks growing into the player the front office believes he can be, it’ll go a long way toward giving the Mets a leg up.
After a tough start to his season, Nolan McLean nearly crawled his way back into the Rookie of the Year conversation. Christian Scott has shown pitchability and resilience that will serve him well when he’s another year removed from Tommy John surgery. Zac Thornton is a crafty lefty who takes the mound as if he’s not baiting major-league hitters with a 92-mph fastball, a kitchen-sink repertoire and a whole lot of moxie.
Throw in a matured Tong and Sean Manaea (the latter of whom, granted, remains a question mark).
Finally, think about how Stearns implied that the Mets will continue to pursue rotation depth. Think about how frustrated Steve Cohen is at having missed the playoffs for two straight years. And for good measure, add in the fact that the jewel of this offseason is none other than two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal.
Even if the Mets do miss out on Skubal, Clay Holmes is hitting free agency and showed a reluctance to leave New York before being traded at the deadline.
Granted, you can’t put too much weight on one outing, but you’re allowed to be encouraged by a start that felt like a microcosm of Tong’s last few seasons. He struck out the side in the first, mimicking his meteoric rise through the minors. He scuffled in the second, just like when he pitched to a 7.71 ERA in the majors last year and struggled in the minors this year.
And then he figured it out.
In four major-league games this year — the previous three coming in relief — he has a 4.80 ERA.
“Everybody grows up at different rates, and he got to the big leagues incredibly quickly for a young guy that just a couple years before was pitching in the [Florida Complex League],” Green said on Saturday. “That journey that fast can spin anybody’s head.”
It very literally did Monday when Tong twirled around to see Pauley’s rocket sail over Carson Benge’s outstretched glove.
But then his eyes narrowed. He pursed his lips. And he pitched.
“It will always be a fight,” Green said. “You don’t get to go up against the best players in the world and technically get over the hump. You have to fight, you have to grind, you have to keep doing . . . You believe in the tenacity that a person has — that he’s going to be able to use that for future benefit. I think that’s the way we look at Jonah.”
More importantly, it seems as if that’s how Tong is starting to look at himself.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
