Jonah Tong is set for another big league outing Wednesday, this time as a bulk reliever behind opener Huascar Brazobán when the Mets face the Reds. It is a different job from the one most starters are chasing, but it gives Tong another chance to follow up on the clean work he turned in last Friday.
Tong threw three hitless innings with a pair of strikeouts in his season debut against the Marlins, and that performance now carries him into a new role in Cincinnati. The Mets announced Brazobán will open Wednesday's game, with Tong lined up to take over after him, a usage pattern that keeps the right-hander in the middle of the staff plan rather than at the front of the game.
That is the key shift for the Mets: Tong is not being asked to start the game himself, even though his first appearance this season looked sharp enough to merit another look. Instead, he will enter behind an opener, a setup that can stretch the pitching plan while leaving one question unanswered — how many innings the club expects from him once he takes over.
The move also makes Wednesday a quick turn in Tong's early season work. After last Friday's scoreless line against Miami, he is being used again before he has even built up a longer run of outings, which tells you how the Mets are managing his first weeks back in the majors. For readers tracking the right-hander's path, it is a role worth following alongside the club's broader push, including the recent Mets Vs Mariners: Jonah Tong, injuries and a first-place push conversation that has already centered on his place in the picture.
What happens next is straightforward, even if the workload is not: Brazobán opens, Tong follows, and the Reds will be the first test of how that pairing looks when the game is actually on the line. If Tong repeats anything close to what he showed Friday, the Mets will have reason to keep using him this way, at least for now.
