Jonah Tong: Baseball America’s 2025 Minor League Pitcher Of The Year
Image credit: Jonah Tong (Photo by Michael Mooney/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Entering spring training, Jonah Tong knew he was ready to take a step forward. After working over the offseason to add velocity and improve the quality of his changeup, Tong was about to unleash a level of dominance on the Eastern League not seen in some time.
Now, after making good on that preparation with a stellar season that saw the 22-year-old righthander get a callup with the Mets, Tong is Baseball America’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year for 2025.
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A tweak in his changeup grip helped kick things off.
“I tried out a splitter in offseason camps and didn’t like how it felt,” Tong told Baseball America about his Vulcan grip change. “So, they suggested we try on top of the horseshoe.”
That seam orientation made all the difference, as Tong was able to create significant depth between his four-seam fastball and his offspeed. With this change Tong’s changeup went from a third or even fourth pitch to the clear star of an arsenal that dominated opposing hitters in 2025.
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The results speak for themselves. Tong boosted the changeup usage and saw his whiff and chase numbers rise. He generated a whiff rate of 50.8% in the minors this season against the changeup while generating a chase rate of 31.9%. He also showed the ability to command the pitch with a 54.5% zone rate that was the highest in his arsenal.
The new grip, in tandem with a 3 mph bump in velocity on his fastball, helped push Tong up prospect rankings and into New York’s major league rotation by Aug. 29. Tong, alongside fellow rookies Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat, have helped give the Mets a needed group of reinforcements as they play through a crucial stretch of the season seeking a postseason berth.
Tong’s early MLB experience has been up and down. Over his first four starts, he’s let up 11 earned runs but also struck out 28.8% of opposing batters while displaying some of the best strike-throwing of his career. But if his minor league performance this season is any indication of his future success, the Mets might have an ace in the making.
Over 22 starts spanning 113.2 innings, Tong struck out 179 batters to lead the minor leagues. Meanwhile, his 1.43 ERA was the best in the minors among pitchers with a minimum of 100 innings pitched and was the lowest ERA by an MiLB pitcher with at least 100 IP since 2017.
Discussions around Tong’s arsenal have centered around his fastball and changeup combination—and for good reason. Tong’s four-seam fastball sits 93-96 mph with plus ride and heavy cut, and it works as a plus bat-missing pitch. It boasted a 35.6% whiff rate in the minors this season, which is a plus metric compared to his peers.
In addition to the four-seam and change, Tong mixes a trio of breaking ball shapes in an upper-70s downer curveball, a low-80s deathball-like slider and an upper-80s cutter. While much of his success this season is attributed to the fastball and changeup combination, his trio of breaking ball shapes hints at a deeper and more robust arsenal still to come.
Despite tremendous success this season, Tong still has his doubters as an undersized righthander with a high-effort operation reminiscent of former Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum. Tong, a native of Canada, grew up idolizing the former Giants star and modeled his operation after him.
Now in the major leagues with the Mets, Tong has an opportunity to build on his tremendous 2025 success and follow in Lincecum’s footsteps.
