Mets to call up RHP Jonah Tong to start Monday and keep him in rotation for remainder of season

NEW YORK (AP) — Jonah Tong will return to the big leagues on Monday and the New York Mets intend to keep the right-hander in their rotation for the final weeks of the season.

Tong will start in Miami against the Marlins, and the 23-year-old could be in line to pitch in next weekend’s Subway Series at Yankee Stadium as part of a young rotation that includes Nolan McLean, Christian Scott and Zac Thornton.

“I just can’t wait for that,” Tong said Sunday before the Mets concluded a three-game series with the San Francisco Giants.

Tong is rejoining the Mets as the club's No. 5 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, after going 5-6 with a 4.54 ERA in 23 starts for Triple-A Syracuse and allowing two runs in his past 21 1/3 innings. He was 4-1 with a 3.00 ERA in his last 10 starts, combined on a no-hitter on July 30 and came within one out of finishing a seven-inning no-hitter on Aug. 29.

“He’s had a good run here recently and we want to see him build on it,” interim manager Andy Green said. “So I think we’re excited to see it, and I think we’ll continue to hand him the ball throughout the rest of this year. We’re not going to make a secret of that.”

Tong had a 3.60 ERA in three relief appearances for the Mets between May 22-June 2, when he issued seven walks in 10 innings. He allowed an earned run in five innings during his big league debut on Aug. 29, 2025, against the Marlins but was 2-3 with a 7.71 ERA in five starts as the Mets missed the playoffs by one game after being 19 games over .500 in mid-June.

“Failure’s inevitable,” Tong said about last season. “Everybody that’s in different points in their careers, I wouldn’t even call it that (failure). There’s so many things that we have control over in our career and sometimes there’s just lessons to be learned, and I’m just really excited to see the person to come out of it.”

Reliever Jefry Yan, whose emphatic strikeout celebrations went viral, was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse by the Mets on Sunday.

Yan is 1-1 with a 5.68 ERA in 13 appearances for the Mets, who recalled him after a busy trade deadline saw relievers Brooks Raley and Luke Weaver get traded to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, respectively.

Yan allowed a two-run homer to Osleivis Basabe in the eighth inning of Saturday’s 9-5 loss.

He fanned 17 in 12 2/3 innings and made his big league debut following seven seasons in the minors and two in Japan. Yan often celebrated strikeouts by jumping high in the air with his feet spread apart, landing on the front of the mound and slapping the grass with his left hand.

“I think he took out (of playing in the big leagues) knowing he can get big league hitters out, knowing he can punch big league hitters out and knowing that the power of his opportunity in the future comes from his ability to fill up the strike zone,” Green said.

The Mets replaced Yan on their roster with Tobias Myers. Acquired in January from Milwaukee along with Freddy Peralta, Myers is 0-2 with a 6.26 ERA in 26 appearances and last appeared for the Mets on July 11 against Boston.

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