The history of the New York Mets is littered with plenty of excellent homegrown pitchers. Whether it was Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden or Jacob deGrom, the Mets seemingly always find a way to develop an elite starter, a trend that has fallen by the wayside as trades have depleted the organization's crop of top pitching prospects.
There is another wave on the way, headlined by Christian Scott, who we focused on in the very first edition of Minor League Mondays. While Scott is knocking on the doorstep of Queens, another pitcher is making a name for himself in the lower levels of the minor leagues.
Tong, who will turn 21 in June, was the Mets' seventh-round pick in 2022 out of Georgia Premier High School in Statesboro, GA. The Mets had Tong begin his pro career last season and the results weren't great as he pitched to a 6.00 ERA between rookie ball and Low-A St. Lucie, piling up a 38:22 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 21 innings pitched.
The light has come on for Tong this season, however, as he was assigned to St. Lucie again to start the season and has dominated that level. In four appearances for St. Lucie, including two starts, Tong has allowed just one unearned run in 18.2 innings pitched. Tong has also demonstrated a significant improvement in his command, compiling a 36:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio in just 2.1 fewer innings pitched for his entire 2023 campaign.
The key to Tong's success is his elite curveball, which is an RPM monster that has nasty 12-to-6 movement, but his four-seam fastball has elite movement as well. MILB.com's Sam Dykstra notes that the pitch averages 92.8 miles per hour but has a figure of 20.8 IVB, or induced vertical break, which is an elite metric for that pitch. Check out some video of Tong's fastball in action below from Dykstra's Twitter account.
The third pitch in Tong's arsenal is a changeup that is below average compared to the other two pitches he throws, but Tong hasn't needed to rely on it too much at this juncture. The resounding success that Tong has had in the Florida State League led the Mets to promote him to High-A Brooklyn, a tremendous vote of confidence in Tong.
The fact that Tong has had such success drawing swings and misses with two pitches in his arsenal gives him a definite reliever floor in the majors. Finding a third pitch will be the key to seeing Tong stick as a starter in the long run, and that could be from either refining his changeup or learning a new pitch based on input from the Mets' pitching lab.
Tong is still a ways away from being a major league consideration but his strong start should land Tong on updated top prospect lists for the organization this summer. Developing players like Tong is imperative for the Mets to build a strong pitching pipeline from the minor leagues to Queens, which would help facilitate the organization's goal of becoming a perennial contender.
The fact that Tong will presumably spend the summer in Brooklyn is exciting for Mets' fans as well since they can plan a trip to Coney Island to see one of the team's more intriguing pitching prospects. Tong could theoretically force the Mets' hand and earn another promotion if he dominates the New York-Penn League, but the fact he has already reached Brooklyn is a resounding success in his development.
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