A native of Markham, Ontario, Canada, Jonah Tong grew up in a family of athletes. His skill at baseball quickly became apparent, but given that the family lived in Ontario, there was a distinct lack of opportunities for him to learn, grow, and highlight his skills to professional scouts and evaluators. A student at Bill Crothers Secondary School in Markham, he transferred to the Georgia Premier Academy for his senior season in 2022.
Overview
Name: Jonah Tong
Position: RHP
Born: 06/19/2003 (Age 23 season in 2026)
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 180 lbs.
Bats/Throws: R/R
Acquired: 2022 MLB Draft, 7th Round (Georgia Premier Academy, Georgia)
2025 Season: 20 G (20 GS), 102.0, 50 H, 20 R, 18 ER (1.76 ERA), 44 BB, 162 K, .258 BABIP (Double-A) / 2 G (2 GS), 11.2 IP, 8 H, 0 R, 0 ER (0.00 ERA), 3 BB, 17 K, .320 BABIP (Triple-A) / 5 G (5 GS), 18.2 IP, 24 H, 20 R, 16 ER (7.71 ERA), 9 BB, 22 K, .396 BABIP (MLB)
Tong had a commitment to North Dakota State University but ended up signing with the Mets after they drafted him in the seventh round of the 2022 MLB Draft and offered him a $225,800 signing bonus, exactly slot value. He did not pitch in 2022 and his 2023 season got off to a late start when the Mets initially held him out from organized games until late June. Assigned to the FCL Mets, the 20-year-old finally made his professional debut on June 30. He made 7 appearances for the team, pitching roughly once a week, and threw a total of 12.2 innings, allowing 9 earned runs, giving up 9 hits, walking 13, and striking out 25. He was promoted to Single-A St. Lucie at the end of August and made three appearances with them, allowing 5 earned runs in 8.1 innings, allowing 8 hits, walking 9, and striking out 13. All in all, it was a forgettable first year as a professional, Tong posted a 6.00 ERA in 21.0 innings over 10 games, allowing 17 hits, walking 22, and striking out 38. Despite the poor results, data collected from his pitches showed that the young right-hander was exceptionally talented as a pitcher, and that he had major potential.
That off-season, seeking to improve his control, Tong adopted a new mentality of not attempting to fine-tune his pitch placement. He also added a new slider to his pitching repertoire, seeking to add a pitch to his arsenal to be a middle-ground bridge between his overhand fastball and his big 12-6 curveball. When the 2024 season began, the changes to his mentality and repertoire were immediately apparent. Assigned to the St. Lucie Mets, he went unscored for 18.2 innings, scattering just 7 hits, giving up 5 unintentional walks, and striking out 36 of the 68 total batters he faced. He was promoted to High-A Brooklyn at the beginning of May, and while he had his share of growing pains there, he added his name to the annals of great Brooklyn Cyclone pitchers, posting a 3.71 ERA in 85.0 innings with 74 hits allowed, 38 walks, and 110 strikeouts. He was promoted to Double-A Binghamton at the beginning of September and ended his season just as strong as he started it, allowing 3 earned runs in 9.1 innings with 4 hits, 4 walks, and 14 strikeouts. In 113.0 cumulative innings between Single-A, High-A, and Double-A, he posted a 3.03 ERA with 85 hits allowed, 47 walks, and 160 strikeouts, the most of any Mets minor leaguer in 2024.
Ranked as the Mets’ 4th top prospect coming into the season, the 22-year-old quickly picked up where he left off when the season began. The right-hander needed a few weeks to get his pitching legs under him, but by the end of April, he embarked on a magical season, the kind where any start was liable to be a no-hitter (and twice, Tong threw six or more no-hit innings). By the time the organization promoted him to Triple-A Syracuse, the right-hander had a 1.59 ERA in 102.0 innings with the Rumble Ponies with 50 hits allowed, 44 walks, and 162 strikeouts. Tong dominated Double-A hitters and it quickly became apparent that Triple-A hitters would stand no chance against him. In two starts with the Syracuse Mets, Tong threw 11.2 innings and did not allow a run, scattering 8 hots, walking 3, and striking out 17.
On August 26, Carlos Mendoza and David Stearns announced that the 22-year-old would be called up to the Mets, joining the recently promoted Nolan McLean, citing how dominant the right-hander had been and how he had exceeded all expectations set for him. On August 29, he made his first major league start, facing the Miami Marlins. The right-hander allowed one earned run over five innings, scattering 6 hits, walking 0, and striking out 6. That was the high-water mark for Tong in his late-season cup-of-coffee. Heralded as a savior for a floundering, moribund team, Tong simply was not up to the task, highlighting that beneath it all, he was still just a fallible 22-year-old kid. In his next four starts against the Cincinnati Reds, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, and Chicago Cubs, Tong posted a 9.88 ERA in 13.2 innings, allowing 18 hits, walking 9, and striking out 16. In those games, there were flashes of brilliance but not enough to be the change the Mets needed. In the end, Tong posted a 7.71 ERA in 18.2 innings in Queens, allowing 24 hits, walking 9, and striking out 22. With Binghamton and Syracuse combined, the 22-year-old posted a combined 1.43 ERA in 113.2 innings, allowing 58 hits, walking 47, and striking out 179, and was named Minor League Pitcher of the Year by various baseball outlets. His 162 strikeouts with Binghamton set a Rumble Ponies record and were the most by a Binghamton player since Jesus Sanchez struck out 176 batters in 165.1 innings in 1997; his strikeout total is third in Binghamton franchise history, behind the aforementioned Sanchez and Bill Pulsipher, who struck out 171 in 201.0 innings in 1993.
Tong throws from a high-three-quarters arm slot, standing from the far third base side of the rubber. As he pushes and drives off of the mound, extending 6.8’, his torso rotates towards first base, effectively raising his arm slot; the 64-degree arm angle that Tong throws from was third only to San Diego Padres right-hander Jeremiah Estrada and his 66-degree arm angle and Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia and his 65-degree arm angle. Between his lithe stature, the long stride and extension off the mound, and the near over-the-top release point, his mechanics are reminiscent of Tim Lincecum. The similarities are more than just coincidence, as Tong modeled his pitching mechanics after the two-time Cy Young Award winner. While the violence in his delivery contributed, to one degree or another, to the hip and back issues that ultimately ended his career, Tong’s mechanics are not as violent as Lincecum’s were, and his 6’1”, 180-pound frame is able to ergonomically carry the kinetic energy produced by his pitching motions better than the 5’11”, 170-pound Freak.
Tong has a full four pitch repertoire consisting of a four-seam fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup. In his five-game sample size with the Mets, he threw his four-seam fastball 57% of the time, his changeup 28% of the time, his curveball 12% of the time, and his slider 3% of the time. His slider was recently incorporated into his arsenal in 2024 and his changeup revamped in 2025.
His four-seam fastball sits in the mid-90s, ranging 92-98 MPH, averaging 95 MPH, improved as compared to 2024, when the pitch sat in the low-to-mid-90s. While the pitch’s 2270 RPM spin rate is roughly average for a four-seam fastball, it was devastatingly effective in the minor leagues and extremely effective at the major league level as well. With a spin efficiency of 99% at a 12:30 spin axis, Tong was able to generate 19 inches of induced vertical break from those 2270 RPM, putting him in the top 1%. Additionally, the 3.5 inches of natural cut put the pitch in the top 10% among four-seam fastballs as well. In his limited major league innings, the pitch resulted in a 17% Whiff%, and when thrown upstairs, a 38.2% Whiff%.
During the 2024 off-season, Tong developed a new grip for his changeup, a pitch that he used sparingly as compared to his slider and curveball and mainly to neutralize left-handers. Now using not just a Vulcan grip, but a modified two-seam Vulcan grip as opposed to the ordinary four-seam Vulcan grip, Tong unlocked a pitch that quickly ascended and has become his best secondary pitch. Sitting in the mid-80s, the pitch averages 1700 RPM with a 99% spin efficiency from a 1:45 spin axis. This gives his changeup roughly 28.5 inches of vertical drop and 14 inches of horizontal arm-side movement, the latter number atypical for a changeup coming from an arm slot as high as Tong’s. The right-hander does not telegraph the pitch by maintaining his arm speed and maintained a 22.2% Whiff% with the pitch in the limited MLB innings that he threw in 2025.
His curveball sits in the mid-to-high-70s, ranging 75-79 MPH and averaging 77.5 MPH. Averaging a spin rate of 2,600 RPM with an 81% active spin percentage and enhanced by his release point, the pitch saw a whopping 62.7” of vertical drop, making it a massive 12-6 bender. While the optics of the pitch are impressive, it doesn’t have much bite to it and is not so much a strikeout pitch as it is a change-of-pace offering or a strike stealer, dropping into the zone for a called strike. Tong throws it about equally to left-handers and right-handers, and it has been slightly more effective against left-handers than right-handers.
His slider, which was developed over the 2023 off-season, was a weapon for the right-hander during the 2024 season but was less effective and used more sparingly in 2025. In 2024, when it was at its best, the mid-to-high-80s pitch featured hard, gyroscopic break that was almost cutter-like in its sudden horizontal slice with roughly 34 inches of vertical movement and 5.7 inches of glove-side horizontal movement. In his limited major league innings, Tong barely used the pitch, but when he did use it in the minors in 2024 and 2025, it is used as an east-west weapon to use against batters for swings-and-misses and a bridge his fastball and curve.
Tong’s control is leagues better than it was when he was drafted, but he can still have bouts of command problems and have trouble hitting the strike zone. He maintained a 16.3% line drive rate, 52.9% groundball rate, and 30.8% flyball rate over the course of his time in Binghamton and Syracuse and a 25.0% line drive rate, 37.5% flyball rate, and 37.5% groundball rate in his limited major league innings. He was hit harder at the major league level, but his propensity for keeping the ball on the ground and limiting damage combined with his high-octane strikeout stuff is why he was the 2025 MiLB Pitcher of the Year and why he has legitimate top of the rotation potential.
2026 Mets Top 25 Prospect List
4) Jett Williams*
5) Brandon Sproat*
6) A.J. Ewing
7) Jacob Reimer
8) Ryan Clifford
9) Will Watson
10) Jack Wenninger
11) Mitch Voit
12) Jonathan Santucci
13) Elian Peña
14) Zach Thornton
15) Nick Morabito
16) R.J. Gordon
17) Chris Suero
18) Dylan Ross
19) Ryan Lambert
20) Antonio Jimenez
21) Edward Lantigua
22) Eli Serrano III
23) Randy Guzman
24) Daiverson Gutierrez
25) Boston Baro
