PORT ST. LUCIE — Jonah Tong has been described as a “goof” and a “different dude” by his teammates, but the word the Mets are hoping to describe the right-handed pitching prospect is dominant.
The young starter was so amped up to throw to hitters for the first time in spring training Friday that he seemed to forget that he doesn’t need to dominate in mid-February. Throwing his first live bullpen of camp in the main stadium of the Clover Park complex, Tong felt as electric as his stuff when he took the mound to throw two simulated innings.
“The ball kind of shot out very, very hard,” his catcher Hayden Senger told the Daily News. “You could really see it.”
Senger tried to follow the pitcher’s head to see the path of the ball, but his slingshot-like delivery was too quick, leaving the catcher shaking his own head.
“I felt like there was a little more adrenaline than I’ve had in the past, especially compared to pitching indoors,” Tong said. “But I thought after I sat down and got back up, and got my feet underneath me, I just focused on attacking the zone.”
Tong was unsure about how hard he was throwing and how many pitches he threw, but this early in spring, it matters little. Spring training is far more process-oriented than results-oriented, and given Tong’s relative inexperience, the learning process is the priority. There is no doubt that Tong has the stuff to compete in the big leagues, but there’s more to being a big league pitcher than just stuff.
Barely 22 years old and in only his fourth season of pro ball, Tong was thrown right into the fire last summer when he was called up from Triple-A in the middle of a playoff chase. The late-August promotion came only a few weeks after a promotion from Double-A. It was a fast rise. The Mets tried to prepare him the best they could, but having him in the major league clubhouse for a full spring will help with his preparation.
Spring training is when you get the most instruction, the most time with the big league coaching staff and a better sense of what it takes to make it at the highest levels of the game by being around established big leaguers.
Tong’s locker at Clover Park is in between left-handed starters Sean Manaea and David Peterson, an intentional choice to allow for some mentorship by more seasoned veterans.
Manaea came out to the field to watch Tong throw Friday, as did Christian Scott. Their presence didn’t go unnoticed by Tong.
“I saw C Scott back there and I was like, “yes,” Tong said, with an emphatic fist-pump for good measure.
“He was awesome,” Scott said. “He filled up the zone, high velo — it’s exactly what you expect from him.”
Tong made five starts last season, going 2-3 with a 7.71 ERA. His high fastball and his changeup missed plenty of bats, but he went to those pitches too often, struggling to integrate his breaking pitches. This was a predictable outcome for a young player who was being challenged more than he ever had been as a pro. The Mets knew that would be a possibility since he had never possessed a deep arsenal, and hadn’t even been throwing his sweeper for a full season.
Tong had to learn the hard way that against big league hitters, he couldn’t always get away with pitches he was able to get away with in the past. Over the winter, he watched some of his starts to see where he went wrong and which pitches he could have used in specific situations and counts. It’s still an ongoing process for him, which is exactly what the Mets want to see.
“I found some things here and there, whether that was sequencing, or my prep going to the games and stuff in between,” Tong said. “There are always times to address that. Even now, I’ll still go back and look at a little bit and see, like, ‘OK, what happens if I play with this sequence here? This sequence there?’ I’m bringing that into lives like today.”
A fifth pitch is being added to the mix this spring, a “cutter/slider thing,” as he calls it. While it might be a “work-in-progress pitch,” it looked sharp Friday. Refining his off-speed offerings and learning how to use all of his pitches will come naturally as he faces hitters and game scenarios.
“It’s knowing that the fastball plays and the changeup plays, but that you also have some other weapons there that you can use early in counts to get swing and misses, to get chases,” said manager Carlos Mendoza. “There’s a lot there that, again, comes from experience, and the more that he takes the baseball, the more that he’ll get that.”
With six starters ahead of him on the depth chart, Tong will likely start the season in Triple-A. It changes nothing for Tong.
“The mindset stays the same,” he said. “I’m just going to go out there and have a lot of fun, enjoy these people, and try to learn as much as I possibly can.”
