Jonah Tong: Why Mets’ David Stearns refused to include him in the Freddy Peralta trade

The New York Mets pulled off one of the blockbusters of the winter, landing All-Star Freddy Peralta and swingman Tobias Myers to anchor a rotation that desperately needed a legitimate ace. But as we dissect the deal that sent top prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat to Milwaukee, I’m more fascinated by the name that didn’t move.

According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the Brewers explicitly asked for Jonah Tong, and David Stearns slammed the door shut.

That refusal tells you everything you need to know about how the organization views the 22-year-old right-hander. While losing Sproat stings, keeping Tong was the non-negotiable condition of this trade. I’m convinced the Mets see Tong not just as a prospect, but as a carbon copy of the man they just acquired—a “budding Peralta” with elite fastball characteristics who is just one refinement away from domination.

The “Fastball Freddy” Blueprint

The comparisons between Tong and a young Peralta are eerie. Tong features a similar “invisible” fastball that generates whiffs despite not touching 100 mph. In his brief MLB cup of coffee last season, Tong’s four-seamer sat at 95.2 mph but held hitters to a .275 Expected Batting Average (xBA). It’s the kind of pitch that rides through the zone and defies gravity, much like Peralta’s signature heater.

However, the “Turbulence” we saw in his 18.2 big-league innings—a 4.34 ERA and 1.45 WHIP—exposed the gap between “stuff” and “pitchability”. MLB hitters sat on the fastball (57.4% usage) because his breaking ball wasn’t a consistent threat yet.

The Syracuse Plan: Refining the Vulcan

The Mets aren’t rushing him back to Queens just yet. The plan is deliberate. As Heyman noted, “The Mets have high regard/hopes for right-hander Jonah Tong, so they held him out of Freddy Peralta trade talks. But Tong’s likely to begin at Triple-A Syracuse, with an eye on refining his breaking pitches to go with a big fastball and signature Vulcan changeup.”

That Vulcan changeup is already a major league weapon, generating a 22.2% Whiff Rate and holding batters to a .234 xBA. The missing piece is the curveball, which he threw just 12.4% of the time. If he can sharpen that third pitch in Syracuse—where he struck out a comical 13.11 batters per nine innings last year—he becomes a frontline starter, not just a thrower.

Sproat might have a higher floor, but Tong has the ceiling of a Cy Young contender. The movement profile on his fastball is unique, and you can’t teach that. If he figures out how to land that curveball for strikes early in counts, he isn’t just joining the rotation in July—he’s heading it by 2027. Stearns kept the right guy.