The Mets were considering bringing up Jonah Tong for Friday’s game against the Marlins as they tried to manage a rotation that has been pushed hard by injuries and a run of games without an off day. Tong was scratched from his originally scheduled Triple-A Syracuse start on Wednesday, and manager Carlos Mendoza said, “We’re keeping him in play.”
The move would put the 22-year-old right back in the mix after the club rushed him to the majors last season following just two starts at Triple-A. That decision did not go well. Tong threw 18 2/3 innings over five starts for the Mets and finished with a 7.71 ERA, a sharp contrast to the 179 strikeouts he piled up to lead minor-league baseball last season.
Even so, the raw stuff is still there. Tong had a 32.7 percent strikeout rate this season, one of the best marks in the minors, and he was throwing as hard as 97.9 mph in his last start on Thursday. The problem was the other side of the ledger: his 14.3 percent walk rate ranked among the worst in the International League, and his season ERA at Triple-A stood at 5.68 over nine starts.
That is the tension inside the Mets’ thinking. Mendoza said there was “no denying that he’s been inconsistent,” but added, “But we also like how he bounces back.” The club was not looking at Tong in a vacuum, either. Clay Holmes was on the injured list with a fractured fibula, David Peterson was slated to start Thursday and the Mets were in the middle of an 18-day stretch with a game every day, a schedule that has made depth more valuable than upside alone.
After Wednesday’s 8-4 loss to the Washington Nationals, the expectation had been that Tong would fly to Miami after his Thursday start in Syracuse. Instead, the Mets left the door open for him to join the major league club before Friday’s game. A.J. Minter was also scheduled to make one more appearance for Triple-A Syracuse over the weekend before possibly coming off the 60-day injured list early next week, giving the Mets another possible arm to fold back into a staff that has been stretched thin. For Tong, the next turn could be another chance to show whether the strikeouts and velocity can outweigh the volatility that has followed him since last season.
