PORT ST. LUCIE -- On a 3-2 count, Jonah Tong threw a biting changeup that fooled Juan Soto, who is merely the most disciplined hitter in baseball. By the time Soto recognized the offspeed pitch moving down and away late, he tried to check his swing, but it was too late.
Because it was Soto, even if it was only live BP in spring training, the strikeout got an audible reaction from players in the dugout watching, and a visible one from Tong, who smiled and did something of a playful fist pump.
At his locker afterward, when I asked him about it, Tong smiled again and said, “I was really happy with that,” drawing the words out for effect.
Well, why not? It was Soto, right? And coming on the heels of Tong’s not-quite-ready-for-prime-time big-league stint late last season, who would deny him a little joy in such a moment, spring training or not.
After all, it was hard to watch Tong struggle last season after he came up with such hype, leading the minors in strikeouts. He had his moments, and clearly showed promise, but he was young, just 22 then, and seemed to lose confidence upon seeing he couldn’t throw the ball by major league hitters the way he did in the minors, as he wound up pitching to a 7.71 ERA in five starts, giving up 24 hits in 18.2 innings.
Yet the Mets say they are as high on him as ever, even making him off-limits in the trade talks for Freddy Peralta, as they gave up Brandon Sproat (and Jett Williams) instead.
As manager Carlos Mendoza said on Thursday, “We know he still has a very high ceiling.”
The question now is how quickly he can reach that ceiling. Tong disagrees with any notion that he learned a hard lesson about just how good major league hitters are compared to the minors, and says his takeaways from his big-league experience were all positive.
“I think I learned that if I can execute my pitches, I can put myself in position to get results at that level,” Tong said. “But the other thing I took away is that I need to give myself more options to get big-league hitters out.
“When I had my pitches working, I felt really confident. But I’m working to add to my repertoire.”
Yes, because his go-to pitches are his high fastball, which has plenty of deception, in part because of his unusually high release point, as well as his changeup, his arsenal is almost all vertical, if you will, and the Mets are working with him to add a cutter that breaks more horizontal.
Here’s how new pitching coach Justin Willard explained it to me on Thursday:
“We’re working with him on the ability to land something else in the zone to continue to leverage the four-seamer and the changeup. Those are really good pitches but it also becomes a really simple plan for big-league hitters.”
A major league scout agreed with Willard, saying that expanding Tong’s arsenal is critical.
“You saw it when he came up,” the scout told me on Thursday. “He couldn’t throw his curveball for strikes, or even the illusion of a strike, and they started sitting on the fastball. As deceptive as it is, with his delivery, big-league hitters will catch up to it when they can look for it. He does have a good changeup but he needs a reliable breaking ball that hitters will have to think about.”
That said, there are contrary opinions as well. Former Mets’ reliever Jerry Blevins, now an SNY analyst, thinks the Mets should be careful about messing too much with Tong’s pitching foundation.
“I think it could be hard for him with that over-top-delivery to develop a sweeper, and I’m not sure about a cutter either,” said Blevins. “I’d really like to see him get a little more time to develop what he has. That fastball-changeup combination can be lethal, especially if he can command his curveball.”
He couldn’t do that during his call-up, and that was partly the issue for Tong as a Met. He said his curveball actually has been his favorite pitch since he was a kid, but he lost the feel for it at times last season, especially in the big leagues, and that made him all the more predictable.
As a result, the Mets are working with him to throw the curveball with more velocity this season, while hoping to keep the same big-break depth.
“It’s like with the cutter,” said Willard. “It’s adding pitches to the arsenal to help maximize what makes him really good.”
More than likely, barring injuries to other starters in spring training, Tong will get more time in Triple-A to refine that arsenal. Remember, as dominant as he was moving up the ranks last season, he made only two starts in Triple-A before the Mets, in desperate need of starting pitching, called him up.
How much time does he need? And does he need to rebuild his confidence?
Tong insists he came away from his big-league experience feeling that he could pitch successfully at the highest level. When I asked him if he felt he’d been “scared out of the strike zone” by major league hitters, as scouts said last season, he didn’t hesitate.
“Not at all,” he said. “To me I learned that if I execute my pitches, I can get those hitters out. I didn’t really see a different reaction to my pitches from big-league hitters. It was more about executing. I feel confident about that.”
Maybe it’s a matter of needing to believe that, and all the better if he does, since Tong does seem to understand the need for a more complete array of pitches.
But that little show of joy on the mound Thursday, after he struck out Soto, said a lot as well. Maybe it’s exactly what he needed.