The Mets optioned right-hander Jonah Tong to Triple-A Syracuse this afternoon. The touted prospect was always a long shot to break camp, as he entered the spring no higher than seventh on the rotation depth chart.
Tong, one of the organization’s top pitching prospects, debuted last August. He got the call roughly two weeks after the Mets brought up Nolan McLean. While the latter dazzled over his first eight starts, Tong had a rockier debut showing. He surrendered 20 runs over his first 18 2/3 innings. Tong had two solid starts but was hit hard in his other three outings.
McLean slots behind Freddy Peralta as the highest-upside arms in Carlos Mendoza’s rotation. Kodai Senga and David Peterson are back despite coming up in some offseason trade speculation. Sean Manaea and Clay Holmes also have spots in what’ll probably be a six-man rotation.
Tong will continue to build up in Triple-A as injury insurance. He made one start in MLB camp, allowing three runs across 2 2/3 innings. Tong has only made two career starts at the Triple-A level. He dominated Double-A opposition to a 1.59 ERA with a 41% strikeout percentage over 20 starts earlier in the season.
In another bit of Mets news, Francisco Lindor played four innings during a minor league Spring Training game on Tuesday. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com relayed the news, noting that the minor league camp allowed Lindor to work solely as a defensive player without needing to bat. Lindor, who is exactly one month removed from sustaining a hamate fracture in his left wrist, has been hitting in the batting cage but isn’t ready to bat in games. He has maintained optimism he’ll be available for Opening Day, which is a little over two weeks away.
Go team…
Nailed it
Speaking of Nolan McLean…. Wow. Anyone believe the US would lose to Italy?
Yea sure.
Yeah, that was a bummer for McLean. Looked so dominant for the first four batters and then kept getting stuff up.
Mutts will be reason if team USA doesn’t advance
This is what we get when we don’t eveb send as close at the best team as we can
How in the world is it the Mets fault?
He didn’t say the Mets, he said Mutts. BIG BIG BIG difference.
The two errors cost USA the game.
Mutt Wilson and Mutt Williams?
It’s the White Sox fault.
It was Teel and Antonacci from the White Sox with the big hits for Italy.
Well said, Mrs. Howtime.
Why can’t we give Team Italy the credit they deserve for shutting down the juggernaut Team USA lineup?
Putting aside injury risk, I don’t think there is a team in baseball with a bigger difference between their rotations ceiling and floor.
You expect Peralta to be great. Peterson you expect to be a solid #4 starter, maybe a little better or worse.
Senga is the definition of high upside low floor. If you told me right now he finished in the top 10 for Cy Young voting this year, I wouldn’t be shocked. If you told me he was released before Memorial Day, wouldn’t surprise me either.
And while McLean has tremendous upside, he’s a rookie. Holmes appears great at times, not so much at others. I have no idea what Manaea is going to be, 2nd half of 2024 he was outstanding, last year was completely lost. And
Is that the shortest notes ever?
Lindor is one of the 10 best players in MLB and has repeatedly been dogged by slow starts even when he’s been completely healthy. There’s no need to rush back.
Tong needs time in Syracuse to fine tune his stuff.Hopefully,he can make a difference in the second half with the big club.
Mr. Franco: Not a big deal but worth noting is that Lindor had a stress reaction which may lead to a fracture. He didn’t have a fracture. You linked to a source that also got it wrong. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7268571/
Joel
Unless you’re an osteopath there is no reason to split hairs between stress reactions and a stress fractures.
They’re 2 stages of the same condition and have the same causes and treatment. Stress reactions proceed stress fractures but they can present simultaneously.
Piazza: ?Osteopath. Looks like you can’t distinguish between a DO and an orthopedic surgeon. You’re also quite wrong about the medical aspect but I won’t waste my time explaining it to you. Do a little reading.
Joel: as long as we’re making distinctions:
Intelligence is being able to explain anything to anyone.
“You’re wrong and the source you linked is wrong and i’m sooOOOooo correct that I won’t even bother lowering myself to explain it to you” is just idiotic arrogance.
YOU should do a little reading.