Minor League Baseball

New York Mets Prized Prospect Now Leads Minor Leagues in Strikeouts

Jonah Tong has been absolutely crushing it this year at Double-A Binghamton, and he now leads the minors in the important category.
Brady Farkas|
A general view of the New York Mets hats for St' Patrick's Day against the Miami Marlins during the second inning at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium on March 17.
A general view of the New York Mets hats for St' Patrick's Day against the Miami Marlins during the second inning at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium on March 17. | Rhona Wise-Imagn Images

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New York Mets

New York Mets top prospect Jonah Tong is putting together an incredible season at Double-A Binghamton, and now he's now leading the entire minor leagues in strikeouts.

Per Baseball America, Tong has 91 punchouts in just 54.1 innings. According to MLB Pipeline, he is the No. 96 prospect in the sport. He was a seventh-round pick out of Georgia Premier Academy in the 2022 draft and is projected to make his major league debut in 2026.

In addition to his gaudy strikeout totals, he's also gone 5-3 with a 1.99 ERA through 11 starts. He's allowed just two home runs and opponents are hitting only .143 against him. It's certainly possible that he earns a Triple-A promotion soon, and he could even be an option at the big-league level as the Mets chase the National League East title.

The following on his deceptive pitch mix from a portion of his MLB.com prospect profile:

Standing at 6-foot-1, Tong can look like the second coming of Tim Lincecum with his deceptive over-the-top delivery and good extension. His fastball only shows average velocity in the 91-94 mph range, but it plays well above that with elite induced vertical break (averaging above 20 inches in front of Statcast cameras in the FSL). He plays off that high pitch with a 74-76 mph curveball that he can drop in (with above 65 inches of vertical drop) for early strikes or tunnel off the heater for a K

The Mets will host the Washington Nationals at 7:10 p.m. ET as David Peterson (NYM) pitches against Jake Irvin (WAS). New York is 43-24.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is the senior writer for “Minor League Baseball on SI’’ and the host of “The Payoff Pitch’’ podcast, which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. Follow Brady on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady.

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