Welcome back to the Mets Beat newsletter! Anthony DiComo has covered the Mets for MLB.com since 2007, including the past 17 seasons full-time on the beat. |
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- One year ago, Jonah Tong was fresh off a successful Major League debut, which followed one of the most prolific Minor League seasons in franchise history. That included a six-week stretch which saw Tong jump multiple levels to the Majors, allowing three earned runs over eight starts along the way. He was one of the brightest young pitchers in the sport. A year later, Tong sat in shorts and a T-shirt in the NBT Bank Stadium dugout, where 2,213 people were about to watch the Syracuse Mets take on the Rochester Red Wings. Upon hitting his high point early last September, Tong struggled down the stretch, flailed in Spring Training, stumbled in early summer and required multiple months to fix what was wrong. At 22, Tong was ascendant. By his 23rd birthday, he was in a rut. “Development is not linear, unfortunately,” Tong said. “Sometimes, things just take a little bit to click.” |
Recently, finally, many of those things have seemed to snap into place. Formerly one of the Mets’ top-ranked prospects and a Top 100 prospect in baseball, Tong -- now No. 5 in the Mets’ system -- came within one out of a no-hitter (in seven innings) in his most recent start for Syracuse. Over his past four outings, Tong has pitched to a 0.84 ERA. On Wednesday, Mets manager Andy Green acknowledged that a Tong call-up “is definitely under discussion right now.” It could happen as soon as next week in Miami. For Tong, this is a chance to accomplish the opposite of what he did in 2025. Rather than end an excellent season on a low note, Tong can finish a poor season on a high one. “There’s a lot of things from a season standpoint that didn’t go my way from a results standpoint,” Tong said. “I own that. I wear that. And I’m going to be better for it. But honestly, from a mental side, it’s only helped. It’s given me more experiences to lean on. And I’m really excited to see not only the person I am this year, but for the rest of my career and how I can relate back to this at any point.” Much of the discourse regarding Tong has focused on his over-the-top arm angle, which last year was one of the highest in Major League Baseball. This year, by the time Tong received a brief call-up in May, his average arm angle had fallen 12 degrees. As the theory goes, Tong began throwing a cutter, which caused his arm to drop. Once that happened, he couldn’t figure out how to get his old mechanics back. That’s partially true, according to those who watched the process unfold. Yes, Tong began throwing a cutter this spring in hopes of adding a crossfire weapon to become less predictable. But according to Triple-A pitching coach A.J. Sager, that’s not the reason Tong’s arm angle dropped. He and Tong both attributed the arm-angle issue more to mechanical problems with his lower half, which caused his entire kinetic chain to move differently than it had in the past. |
“It was frustrating for him early on,” Sager said. “I know that, because of the expectations … it felt like he had a lot of pressure on him and probably wasn’t feeling great that he wasn’t answering the call.” At the depth of his struggles, Tong reflected on a lesson he learned years ago from Garrett Baker, a Mets developmental pitching coach. Baker told Tong to examine the career of Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, who floundered for parts of his first two Major League seasons before making the All-Star team in his third and garnering Cy Young votes in his fourth. “It’s just been, honestly, a daily reminder for my entire career,” Tong said. Tong no longer worries about his arm angle; while it has risen since its nadir earlier this summer, Tong doesn’t know exactly where it rests today. All he knows, in his words, is that “this is the best I’ve ever felt since the start of the year.” He feels like he has a new lease on life. “The reality is that I’m 23 years old, I’m playing professional baseball and I get an opportunity to come to a ballpark and show off my craft,” Tong said, before adding: “Sometimes I have to wake up and remind myself … I’m 23, and I’m doing some pretty cool things.” |
MLB MORNING LINEUP PODCAST |
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Benny Agbayani hit a walk-off solo homer in the 13th inning of the 2000 NL Division Series Game 3 against the Giants, and Edgardo Alfonzo knocked home the game-tying run in the eighth. Who scored that run? A) Mike Bordick B) Lenny Harris C) Timo Pérez D) Todd Zeile |
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Major League Baseball is in the middle of multiple philanthropic efforts. One is the annual Players' Weekend Auction, which includes items from several teams. The other is a commemoration of Childhood Cancer Awareness Day, which will take place Sunday. As part of the latter effort, the Amazin’ Mets Foundation and the Jessie Rees Foundation will host an employee engagement event for Mets volunteers to pack “JoyJars” for children actively fighting cancer. Those jars include toys, games and activities set for distribution to local pediatric cancer patients. Additionally, the Amazin’ Mets Foundation has been supporting Sunrise Association’s day camp programs for pediatric cancer patients and their siblings, including the camp’s Color Wars week this summer. To date, the foundation has provided $238,000 in grants to Sunrise Association, which aims to bring childhood joys to pediatric cancer patients and their siblings. |
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• After making Luis Robert Jr. available on waivers, the Mets lost him earlier this week to a claim from the Orioles. (At least two other teams put in claims on Robert, according to people with knowledge of the process.) Here’s why the Mets did it. |
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B) Harris The veteran bench player reached on a fielder’s choice in the eighth, stole second, then scored on Alfonzo’s double to tie Game 3 of the NLDS. |
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