The Orange and Blue Pitching Machine Strikes Again

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  • By Nathan Baker

    Last Updated on August 29, 2025 12:01 pm by Paul Williamson | Published: August 29, 2025

    When the New York Mets assembled an admirable group of homegrown starting pitchers in the early to mid 2010s, they did so in an environment of a rebuilding team. Having not made the playoffs since their 2006 NLCS appearance, this perennial fourth place team was able to integrate an exceptional number of high-quality young pitchers at a pace that was ideal for their development, without considering any need for immediate results. This is often the case for teams with top-tier farm systems, as this amassment of talent generally only happens when a team is consistently picking high in drafts, collecting compensation picks, and trading away major league talent for prospects.

    The 2025 New York Mets find themselves in the thick of a playoff race, five games behind the Phillies for the division and four games ahead of the Reds for the wild card, yet they still rank as debatably the games best farm system, predominantly on the back of three top starting pitching prospects. All three were in Triple-A couple of weeks ago when Nolan McLean became the first of the group to get to the show, and after McLean’s historic first three MLB starts, New York is pulling the trigger on 22 year-old right hander Jonah Tong.

    Tong is debatably the best of the Mets top three pitching prospects, which includes flamethrower Brandon Sproat, but the ordering of Tong and McLean ultimately comes down to the balance of Tong’s upside compared to McLean’s floor. McLean has been dominant in his professional career through mixing six quality pitches with exceptional horizontal movement, unquestionably a recipe for success when executed with quality command, but Tong has the polar opposite approach to getting outs.

    The delivery is difficult to describe in words, coming from a straight over the top arm slot, but from a lower release point. Tong’s low, and initially compact wind up explodes into a disorienting mass of arms and legs, reminiscent of a young Tim Lincecum. Much like Lincecum, Tong’s head clears out hard to the left when releasing the baseball to allow for the arm to go over the top, making it all the more surprising that he’s able to consistently throw strikes.

    Deception and delivery carry a lot of weight, and can make a pitcher effective on their own, but the raw stuff from Tong is special, even without the unique way in which he produces it. The fastball is his best and most exceptional pitch, consistently generating 19+ inches of induced vertical break from that unorthodox release point. He averages a touch over 95 on the pitch, but he’ll sit in the mid to low 90s for most of the game, dialing it up to 99 when needed. Even at lower velocities, the shape of the pitch plays, generating a whiff rate over 40%, predominantly at the top of the strike zone.

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    August 29, 2025, 12:01 pm