New York Mets Set to Promote One of Baseball's Top Prospects

4:05 p.m. ET: As they work to solidify a National League playoff berth, the New York Mets are promoting top pitching prospect Jonah Tong to the major leagues.

Will Sammon of The Athletic had the information on social media:

The Mets enter play on Tuesday at 70-61, six games back of the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East. They are 2.5 games ahead of the Cincinnati Reds for the third and final wild card spot.

It's unclear how the Mets will use Tong down the stretch, but it's exciting no matter what the role is.

Currently ranked as the No. 44 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline, Tong has had a brilliant season in the minors. Between Double-A and Triple-A, he's gone 10-5 with a 1.43 ERA. He's struck out 179 batters in 113.2 innings, walking 47. Opponents are hitting .148 off him.

The Mets are using Clay Holmes, Sean Manaea, Nolan McLean, David Peterson and Kodai Senga in the starting rotation, and there's no obvious person to replace Tong with, so it will be interesting how manager Carlos Mendoza handles things.

Tong, 22, is a former seventh-round pick of the Mets. From Canada, he is listed at 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds. He represented the Mets at the Futures Game this past July, and though he doesn't have premium velocity, he does have excellent secondary stuff.

The following comes from a portion of his MLB.com prospect profile:

Tong can look like the second coming of Tim Lincecum with his deceptive over-the-top delivery and good extension. His fastball only shows average velocity in the 91-94 mph range, but it plays well above that with elite induced vertical break (averaging above 20 inches in front of Statcast cameras in the FSL)....

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