So much about New York Mets pitching prospect Jonah Tong’s path to baseball relevance has been unorthodox, but it’s obviously working.
Tong grew up in the hockey-mad region of Markham, Ontario, about 30 minutes outside of Toronto, the third of three children born from a mother of Irish, German and Scottish heritage and a father who is 100 percent Chinese. Utilizing a unique, over-the-top delivery that has been compared to Tim Lincecum, Tong was able to attract the attention of recruiters from North Dakota State University, but he left home after graduation to attend the Georgia Premier Academy, eventually earning an invite to the MLB Draft League for the 2022 campaign.
Tong played for the Frederick Keys in Maryland, and although his numbers may not have looked too great – “I got my teeth kicked in a little bit,” Tong admitted – the Mets saw enough to select Tong in the seventh round.
“And the rest is history,” Tong said.
Actually, it’s making history.
Jonah Tong Started a Combined Perfect Game for Double-A Binghamton
In his May 10 start for Double-A Binghamton, the second game of a doubleheader against Reading, Tong faced 20 batters over 6.2 innings and retired all 20, 13 by strikeout. Though he was one out away from a perfect game – doubleheaders in the minor leagues are seven-inning games – Tong had thrown 99 pitches and was replaced by reliever TJ Shook, who struck out the lone batter he faced for a 6-0 Binghamton win.
“If I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t have done it the other way either,” Tong said.
Besides, it’s the result that matters, and Tong can proudly say that he did the heavy lifting in the first perfect game in Rumble Ponies history, as well as the first in full-season affiliate baseball since Sept. 1, 2017.
“Couldn’t have had a better day, especially before Mother’s Day,” Tong said. “I’m going to dedicate that to my mom.”
Tong was named Eastern League Pitcher of the Week following the win, which was his first win at the Double-A level. However, it was far from the first impressive outing in 2025 for Tong, who had already won the Pitcher of the Week award once previously. Tong improved to 1-2 with a 2.57 ERA, and over 28.0 innings, Tong has 51 strikeouts, which leads all Double-A pitchers.
The numbers this year have been outstanding,” said Ben Badler of Baseball America’s “Future Projection” podcast.
Jonah Tong Making Meteoric Rise Through Mets Farm System
It’s been a meteoric rise through the Mets system for the 6-foot-1 right-hander. He pitched just 22 innings over 10 appearances between the rookie level Florida Complex League Mets and Low-A St. Lucie in 2023. But last season, after starting off briefly at St. Lucie, Tong dominated in 19 starts at High-A Brooklyn, striking out 110 batters in 85.0 innings, and earned a late-season promotion to Binghamton. Tong is currently the No. 6 prospect in the Mets farm system, and Badler said Tong has developed dominant bat-missing ability on all three of his pitches.
“He gets behind his fastball really well and is able to get that 20 inches of [induced vertical break] on his fastball, so it’s a lot of carry on a pitch that is sitting low 90s, but he can dial it up to 97, and it’s a really high swing-and-miss pitch because of the life on it,” Badler said. “And I love his curveball. I mean, it’s a true 12-to-6 curveball.
“It’s really tight spin, it’s big-time depth, mid 70s. It’s a plus pitch, and it pairs extremely well off that high carry fastball for that north-south attack where you have to be ready for that fastball up, then he drops that curveball down on you, and it drops just like it falls off the table, which we normally would say that about a really good changeup, but it’s just got so much depth, and he misses so many bats with that pitch, at such a high rate. It’s a 61-percent miss rate on that pitch, it’s crazy high.”
But what has allowed Tong to reach a whole other level, Badler said, is his development of a changeup that has fooled a ton of batters and induced a 63-percent miss rate.
“He is piling up swings and misses,” Badler said. “It’s deceptive, it’s got some drop and some fade to it. It’s got that wiggle. I think he’s a legitimate three-pitch guy.”
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