Jonah Tong’s path back to Queens is still there, but it may not be cleared for a September stop just yet.
When Major League Baseball opens roster spots to 28 on Sept. 1, the Mets might decide Tong stays in Triple-A Syracuse rather than getting the call. That would be a notable pause for a pitcher who turned heads last year with his grin, his “Vulcan” changeup and a delivery that looked built to torment hitters. It would also reflect how uneven this season has been for him.
Tong was roughed up in Triple-A earlier this year, his arm slot drifted, and the strikes weren’t always there. The Mets, though, still see a pitcher worth investing in. He entered the year as the organization’s top prospect and has since slid to No. 5, with only one of the players ahead of him coming in at the trade deadline.
Director of player development Andrew Christie said the Mets’ focus has been on making Tong a fuller pitcher, not just the guy who overwhelmed Double-A last season with a fastball and changeup.
“Development is different for every player,” Christie told Newsday this week. “To be completely honest, [last year] he dominated Double-A with two pitches, and that’s just really unlikely in the big leagues as a starting pitcher . . .
“In the first part of the year, we were really trying to emphasize using the cutter more, using the curveball more, maybe a slider, and sometimes the results take a step back. I think the capability that everybody saw from Jonah last year is still in there, and hopefully by the end of this year, he’ll be a more complete pitcher than he even was last year.”
The cutter is new this season, and Christie said it can matter most against lefthanded hitters. The arm slot has changed too, dropping from 64 degrees, according to Baseball Savant, to a more standard 51 degrees. Christie said that wasn’t a deliberate overhaul so much as the side effect of trying to broaden Tong’s arsenal and prepare him for a future as a big-league starter.
“I wouldn’t say we’re working to change that [arm slot],” Christie said. “I would say we’re working to understand better how he can best work from there, and maybe if the slot climbs a little bit as a result of some of the work we’re doing, OK.
If it stays the same, OK. If it drops more, OK.
Just as long as we get the results.”
The recent signs have been better. Over Tong’s last six starts, the Mets have been encouraged by the way he has thrown, even after he allowed five homers to the Columbus Clippers on Aug. 5, a game Christie said was affected by wind blowing out. In five of those six outings, Tong gave up one earned run or fewer.
The issue that keeps hanging over him is the walks. Even during that six-start stretch, he averaged about five per nine innings. On the other side of the ledger, he struck out 31 batters in 23 1⁄3 innings.
There’s also the question of whether he’s ready mentally for the jump. Tong’s emotional postgame interviews led some to wonder if he had the toughness for the majors.
The Mets, though, have seen him rebound before. His first two pro seasons were rough, with no ERA below 6, but he adjusted, posted a 3.03 ERA in 2024 and then a 1.43 ERA in 2025 that earned him a promotion to the majors.
This season in Syracuse, the results have been far less tidy: a 6.11 ERA and 5.2 walks per nine. Even with the better recent outings, that’s the kind of profile that could keep him in the minors a while longer.
Interim manager Andy Green isn’t eager to hand out September jobs simply because roster space exists.
“I don’t think it’s a good thing culturally to say, ‘Hey, we have a spot, come pitch,’ ” he said last week. “We have a deep belief in Jonah as a pitcher and have confidence that he’s going to play a significant role in the future.
He’s still grinding, still getting better, still working, so [Triple-A] is the right spot for him right now. That could change . . .
“I managed [the Padres and] we did that repetitively. It didn’t set people up for long-term success.
It [made them feel like] ‘I’m here because there’s a hole on the team . . . ’
“I think all these guys that are here, one reason they’re performing well is because they’ve all earned the right to be here and they’ve shown they can outperform the minor leagues.”
Still, the Mets aren’t viewing Tong as a lost cause or a finished product. Christie said the picture is more complicated than the ERA alone.
“It’s a little more nuanced than ERA,” Christie said. “He’s getting back to a better fastball shape and velocity and has been really willing to use [all] his pitches.”
And, perhaps most importantly, he’s starting to look like the pitcher the Mets remember.
“I talked to our [minor league] pitching coordinator Kyle Rogers about this and the last six or so starts, when you watch the game, it feels like you’re watching Jonah again from last year,” Christie said. “He has these funny quirks on the mound where he’s sticking the landing or spinning off, and I think he feels the confidence to lean into who he is again, and part of that is just evolving.”
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