Tong Displays New Cutter in Spring Debut

Most young pitchers fighting for a rotation spot wouldn’t gamble on a brand new weapon in their first spring training start. They’d workshop it quietly on the back fields, polish the edges, and sneak it into games only when it felt airtight.

However, most young pitchers aren’t Jonah Tong.

Tong took the mound Wednesday afternoon for his first spring training start against the St. Louis Cardinals. Instead of easing into experimentation, he leaned into it.

The right-hander threw 50 pitches. Eighteen of them were his newly developed cutter.

“I really liked the usage of the cutter today, even though my last one got hit a little bit,” Tong said postgame. “Just happy with how things are progressing and just continuing this Spring.”

Tong did get hit around a bit. He cruised through his first two innings, retiring the first three batters he faced and escaping a one-out jam in the second. But in the third, a single and a walk snowballed. One of those new cutters caught too much plate and was sent the other way for a three-run home run.

For many young pitchers trying to secure a rotation job, that kind of outcome would be a reason to shelve the experiment. For Tong, it was part of the plan.

“[It’s] another off-speed offering. Sometimes it’s going to get hit. But that’s the whole part of learning it. I’m happy it’s happening in Spring because at least I can take notes from it and push it forward,” he said during a midgame interview.

It’s an intriguing perspective on pitch development. Conventional wisdom says the best performance wins jobs. Tong’s approach suggests a longer view, one that implies the Mets trust that process over a clean spring ERA.

The cutter, objectively, needs refinement. It sits around 92 MPH with roughly 15 inches of vertical break and -1.1 inches of horizontal movement. It did not generate a whiff in this outing. Tong also appears to be experimenting with a reshaped slider, one with more vertical depth than his previous version.

Still, Tong seems to be in strong spirits. He’s mentioned multiple times that one of his spring priorities is strengthening relationships in the clubhouse. By all accounts, he’s leaning into that as well.

“Not great, I’m going to be honest with you,” Tong said when asked about his performance in Sean Manaea’s chess club. He reportedly lost against fellow members Ryan Clifford, Nick Morabito, and Jacob Reimer.

Hopefully, with a little more in-game experience, both Tong’s cutter performance and his chess rating start trending upward.

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