What’s Up with the Mets? ⚾️
The Mets took the opener of their series with the Marlins down in south Florida by the score of 9-4 (box)
RHP Jonah Tong was recalled from the minors to make his first MLB start of 2026 and was okay, striking out seven in four innings while allowing four earned runs on four hits and a walk
Righties Dedniel Nunez, Chris Devenski, Daniel Duarte, and Austin Warren each threw a scoreless inning in relief
A.J. Ewing had three hits and drove in three runs
Juan Soto, Bo Bichette, Francisco Lindor, Marcus Semien, and Nick Morabito all had multi-hit games
Roster Moves 📰
Recalled RHP Jonah Tong from Triple-A Syracuse
Optioned RHP Justin Hagenman to Triple-A Syracuse
Play of the Game ⭐️
The beginning of this game was extremely back and forth, as after scoring three runs in the first two innings, the Mets allowed a four-spot in the bottom of the 2nd, before tying the game with a run in the 3rd.
Heading to the 4th locked in a 4-4 tie, Bo Bichette delivered a run-scoring hit to regain the lead, but the biggest play of this game came later in the inning. With two on and two outs, A.J. Ewing slashed a double down the left field line to plate two more runs and give the Mets breathing room that they would never relinquish.
The Just Mets Podcast 🎙️
In the latest edition of the Just Mets Podcast, Rich is joined by MLB Network’s Jon Morosi to discuss how the club is going to fix this two-year long mess David Stearns has created for the major league club.
SUBSCRIBE: YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Down on the Farm 🌾
Single-A St. Lucie and High-A Brooklyn have both concluded their seasons
Both Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse were off on Monday
Today’s Game 🗓
Match-up: Mets (66-78) vs. Marlins (72-72)
Where: loanDepot Park - Miami, FL
Starters: LHP Sean Manaea (4-7, 4.70 ERA) vs. RHP Sandy Alcantara (13-9, 3.54 ERA)
When: 6:40 PM EDT
Where to Watch: SNY
What to make of Jonah Tong’s return, and mapping a successful path forward ✍️
Young righty Jonah Tong’s ascension to the top part of the Mets prospect rankings has been well documented over the last couple of seasons.
The 23-year-old has tremendous stuff and an incredibly high ceiling, but as we well know, he was rushed to the Majors last summer, and the majority of his 2026 campaign has not gone to plan.
Tong got off to a difficult start in Syracuse this season, and while he got back on track and pitched well for most of the last two months, even a cursory glance at his numbers exposes his two glaring bugaboos.
In 23 Triple-A starts, Tong worked to a 4.54 ERA with a 1.37 WHIP. He held opponents to a .222 batting average against and struck out 126 hitters in 107 innings, but it’s what else happened in those 107 frames that really jumps off the page.
Tong walked 59 hitters—an exorbitant 4.96/9 ratio. He also allowed an eye-opening 22 long balls. Tong’s stuff is difficult to hit consistently—he surrendered only 88 knocks in those 107 innings. But when you’re giving away too many free passes and then when you do get hit, it leaves the ballpark, it’s easy to see how you could give up some runs in a hurry.
The Mets feel good about their young crop of starting pitching as all of Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, and Zac Thornton look like legitimate rotation building blocks. They would love nothing more than for Tong to join that group as a centerpiece of the future, but for that to happen, he’s going to have to develop significantly more consistency.
New York promoted the youngster to make his first big league start yesterday, and the outing had literally everything you could’ve expected.
Tong came out firing, striking out the first four hitters he faced.
But immediately afterwards, the outing hit a significant speed bump. The following four hitters resulted in a groundball single, a well-struck triple, a walk, and a three-run bomb.
But then, Tong allowed just two more baserunners over his final three innings. He pitched to 21 hitters, and for essentially 17 of them, he was dominant. That four-hitter stretch in the 2nd inning, though, dramatically diminishes the enthusiasm coming out of the outing. And just further highlights the issues he runs into with both free passes and big flies.
A deeper dive into his metrics unearths another blatant need for improvement. A reliable third pitch.
In the big leagues this season, Tong’s fastball and changeup have both been effective. His secondary pitches, like his curveball and cutter, have not been, and that’s putting it lightly.
To be fair to Tong, the talk surrounding Tong over the course of the season has been the development of those secondary pitches, specifically the curveball, but he didn’t use those pitches very much on Monday for some reason. Was it that he isn’t confident in those pitches here? Was it that Francisco Álvarez just didn’t call enough of them? Maybe it was a combination of the two? None of those answers are really clear, but Mets interim manager Andy Green was generally pleased with Tong’s first start back in the big leagues despite the final line. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that Tong would invest so much time and energy in the minors working on those third and fourth pitches and come back here and revert to being mostly a two-pitch pitcher.
For context, Tong used his curveball nearly 14 percent of the time at Triple-A this year. On Monday, he used it eight percent of the time.
To be fair, and generally speaking, outside of that one big mistake he made to Graham Pauley in the second inning on Monday, Tong did pitch well over five innings but, again, he will have to begin to incorporate those other pitches here with more frequency and consistency if he’s going to enjoy any sort of regular success, especially when he faces more formidable lineups over the course of the month.
With just six starts at the sport’s highest level under his belt, it’s far too early to make any determinations about Tong or his future quite yet. But I do feel like the rest of this month are important for him and his place in the 2027 rotation, as it offers him a significant opportunity to align himself in a more advantageous position in the view of the team’s front office heading into the winter.
Around the League 🚩
Jesus Luzardo fired a complete game two hit shutout to deliver the Phillies a 1-0 home victory over Atlanta
Adley Rutschman crushed a three run homer in Boston’s 5-2 win over the Angels
Coby Mayo homered twice to power the O’s to a 6-4 victory over the Guardians
Mason Miller struck out two more hitters in scoreless 9th to secure his 34th save in the Padres 3-2 home win against Washington
Riley Greene had three hits including a homer in Detroit’s 5-4 win over the Twins