It is not typical for the Mets to call up two of the hottest prospects in the same month, but here we are. With Nolan McLean settling in as an elite pitcher, already winning his first three games and posting a 0.89 ERA, it’s time to speak on behalf of the other bright superstar, Jonah Tong.

Jonah Tong was drafted in the 7th round of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Bill Crothers SS in Markham, Ontario. He would go on to make his professional debut the next year in 2024 for rookie ball. Although his career in 2023 got off to a rocky start, no one knew how far ahead of his time Tong was compared to other MiLB pitchers. An 0–2 record across two levels of rookie ball and A ball gave him a stat line of a 6.00 ERA in 21 innings while striking out 38 batters. Keep an eye on the strikeout rate—although his season wasn’t pretty, he still averaged a strikeout-per-nine ratio of 16.3. It was only 21 innings and an incredibly short sample size, but to put it in perspective, a 16.3 strikeout rate is unreal. Some of the greats of the game like Jacob deGrom or Chris Sale have career K/9 rates around 11. To keep up those numbers even for a short stretch is promising for anyone.

His strikeout rate would jump to 17.3 in 2024 when his career spiked to where it is now. That year was when he really started getting more attention. In 18.2 innings at A ball, Tong didn’t give up a single run, holding runners to a 0.00 ERA. He struck out 50% of the batters he faced in that stretch, tallying 36 strikeouts in 18.2 innings. That’s when people started taking notice, and soon he was called up to single A. There, he had a 5–4 record in 85 innings, starting 19 games and striking out 110. At that point, his strikeouts per nine dropped to a more realistic average of 11.6. Still, at just 21 years old—barely legal to drink—Tong was already chopping it up in the minors.

At this point, Tong became my favorite Mets prospect. I started to believe more heavily in the promise and future of this Mets organization. A lot of Mets prospects were on the rise, and it was one of the best times to be a Mets fan. But one name that wasn’t yet recognized as a consensus top 100 prospect was Jonah Tong. Little did the world know the kind of season he was about to have in 2025.

2025 marked the era of “King Tong.” Across two levels of MiLB, from Double-A Binghamton to Triple-A Syracuse, Tong was lights out. Twenty games in Binghamton proved his 2024 season wasn’t a fluke. Sometimes it makes you question the legitimacy of the front office for waiting so long to call up a top 100 prospect who’s dominating the minors. It makes you wonder where the Mets would be if they had called him up earlier. Nonetheless, in 102 innings for Binghamton, Tong had an 8–5 record but, most notably, a 1.59 ERA. In those 102 innings, he struck out 162 batters. At that point, Tong wasn’t just one of the best Mets minor league pitchers—he was one of their best pitchers overall.

The likely reason the Mets didn’t call him up sooner was to preserve his rookie status. By calling up prospects after August 16th, players kept that title for the following year, and that allowed Tong to remain rookie-eligible for 2026. In those 20 games, he showed enough for David Stearns to feel comfortable moving him to Syracuse. It would only be a two-game sample before the Mets finally made the move and called him up to the big leagues. In those two games, Tong proved he didn’t want to be in the minors any longer. He won both starts and struck out 17 batters in 11.2 innings.

Now, the 22-year-old Jonah Tong is set to make his MLB debut against the Miami Marlins this Friday night, and nothing could be more electric than when Tong is on the mound. Since April 22nd, he has pitched 100 innings, allowed just 47 hits, given up only one home run, and struck out 156 batters. Opponents are hitting a mere .137 with a .401 OPS against him, and his ERA during that span sits at a superb 0.99. Across all of MiLB this season, among 154 pitchers with at least 100 innings, Tong ranks first in ERA (1.43), strikeout rate (40.5%), strikeout-to-walk percentage (29.5%), and batting average against (.148).

The future is now. It’s exciting to see the Mets finally churn out big-league-ready pitchers, and it looks like they have their first successful homegrown arm since Jacob deGrom made his debut in 2014. There’s a lot to be grateful for as a Mets fan in 2025, but one thing is certain: pitching is here, and these rookies aren’t going down anytime soon. Oh yeah, and the big-league comparison Jonah Tong has received the most is Tim Lincecum—the same guy who won two Cy Youngs and three World Series titles. 😉