December 9, 2025

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

Pitch long and prosper.

That might be the advice that Spock would offer young right-hander Jonah Tong.

You can picture the beloved Star Trek character following up these words with his Vulcan salute – his famous hand gesture in which his fingers (parted between the middle and ring fingers) are split into a V.

And Spock would likely be flattered that this gesture has inspired Tong’s best pitch – his “Vulcan changeup.”

It’s a pitch that helped Tong (Markham, Ont.) top all minor leaguers in strikeouts (179), ERA (1.43) and opponents’ batting average against (.148) in 2025.

It also earned him his first big league call-up from the New York Mets in late August, as well as the Canadian Baseball Network’s 2025 Wayne Norton Award, as the top Canuck minor league pitcher in the affiliated ranks.

Tong, who’s always striving to upgrade his pitch arsenal, learned the Vulcan grip for his change-up from Instagram. Initially, he gripped the ball across four seams, but Eric Jagers, New York Mets’ vice-president, pitching, suggested he rotate the ball in his hand to grip the two seams that form a horseshoe.

Jagers introduced the grip to Tong to help him achieve more consistency with his changeup.

“We had him on a call with a few other members of our team in November 2024 and we just presented him with a few different grips,” said Jagers. “We actually gave him three different ones to try.”

Jagers is quick to deflect any credit for the success of the pitch back to Tong.

“Big kudos to Jonah for just the willingness to try, to explore new things to see if something might work,” said Jagers. “Sometimes guys get attached to a grip and they’re very resistant to change, but Jonah has always been very open-minded and I think that’s what has really helped him to evolve his game.”

Rich Leitch, vice-president of baseball operations with the Toronto Mets, coached Tong when the young right-hander was 15. Tong still trains at the Toronto Mets facility in the off-season and Leitch marvels at Tong’s enhanced changeup.

“It’s a devastating pitch,” said Leitch. “It’s almost a variation of a split finger fastball but you’re just reducing the spin a little bit based on the fingers being a little wider and you’ve got different contact points for the ball. The thing with Jonah is it comes out of his hand as a fastball and then it just falls off the table. It just disappears.”

That pitch helped elevate Tong to another level in the Mets’ organization with the double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies and triple-A Syracuse Mets this season. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Tong also possesses a mid-to high 90s fastball and a deceptive over-the-top throwing motion.

“Every kid that ever faced him in our program and others, they always used to say, ‘I can’t see the ball coming out of this guy’s hand,’” said Leitch. “It’s like it’s coming from right behind his ear.”

With the double-A Rumble Ponies, Tong went 8-5 with a 1.59 ERA, striking out 162 batters in 102 innings, in 20 starts. He was then promoted to the triple-A Syracuse Mets where he didn’t allow a run and collected victories in both of his starts, fanning 17 in 11 2/3 innings.

This earned him a promotion to the big leagues at the end of August. Leitch was told in advance of Tong’s promotion, which made the young righty the fifth former Toronto Met to play in the big leagues this season. The others were Liam Hicks (Toronto, Ont.), Zach Pop (Brampton, Ont.), Denzel Clarke (Pickering, Ont.) and Tyler Black (Stouffville, Ont.).

Tong made his major league debut against the Miami Marlins on August 29 at Citi Field. The Mets scored 12 runs in the first two innings to provide him with plenty of run support and he ended up pitching five innings and allowing just one earned run, while striking out six.

“The hardest thing for me when he made his debut against the Marlins was we wanted to have a watch party, but nobody would carry the game, so I ended up having to reorder my MLB package so I could watch it on my iPad,” said Leitch.

Tong’s final out in that contest was a strikeout of Hicks who had caught Tong at the Toronto Mets complex in the past.

“That was bittersweet,” said Leitch. “You want both of them to do well. But obviously at that point, Liam was a little more established, so I’m thinking if Jonah gets out of this, he’s in line for the win. It was the final out of the fifth inning. So I was like I love Hicksy, but I kind of want Jonah to get a win here in his debut.”

Tong did, indeed, get the win. It was his first of five major league starts in which he would finish 2-3 with 7.71 ERA.

Selected in the seventh round of the 2022 MLB draft, Tong has come a long way since he first walked into the Toronto Mets facility as a 120-pound, 15-year-old. When Leitch sees Tong these days, he sometimes can’t believe it’s the same person.

“The legs on this kid now are unbelievable. He looks like a superhero. He’s built like Spiderman,” said Leitch. “He’s just all muscle.”

Jagers has witnessed a similar physical transformation in Tong. He started with the New York Mets prior to the 2023 campaign, which coincided with Tong’s first full pro season. Jagers has been impressed by the work that Tong has done “developing himself physically in the weight room and training room.”

“And Jonah has always just soaked up information, whether it was from teammates or coaches. That has never wavered no matter what level he has been at,” noted Jagers.

This off-season, Tong is continuing to work on his pitch arsenal – including his devastating Vulcan changeup - at the Toronto Mets complex. And when the calendar turns to 2026, he will not only be a strong candidate for the big league Mets’ starting rotation, but also to pitch for Canada at the World Baseball Classic.

“The one constant with Jonah is the desire to learn, to get better and to be very focused in his work day-to-day,” said Jagers. “I think the success Jonah has had is just a culmination of all the work he’s done and the focus that he has put into his craft on a daily basis. He also knows that he’s not a finished product and that there are things he’s going to work on this off-season that will put him in a better spot.”

Leitch offers similar praise. He has witnessed how hard Tong pushes himself in the weight room and this inspires Leitch to share a message with some of the younger Toronto Mets players.

“I tell them, ‘If you guys want to know what the secret sauce is, there it is. That guy (Tong) didn’t look like that six years ago,’” said Leitch. “Jonah just did the work. It didn’t take any talent to reshape his body to put himself in a position to be successful . . . I believe the sky’s the limit for him.”

Wayne Norton

Born in 1942 in Winnipeg, Man., Wayne Norton played in 1,206 minor league games – including five seasons in triple-A – before becoming a trailblazing baseball executive and scout in Canada.

In the mid-1970s, he founded and established Baseball Canada’s Junior National Team and he became a long-time coach and manager for the organization. He also managed Canada’s Pan Am Games team in 1975, prior to helping to launch Baseball B.C. two years later. In 1986, he established the National Baseball Institute (NBI) in Vancouver. It was a trailblazing baseball academy that’s now often cited as the standard for similar Canadian facilities.

After leaving the NBI in 1994, he evolved into one of Canada’s most respected baseball scouts. Pat Gillick hired him to scout for the Baltimore Orioles from 1996 to 1999 and when Gillick accepted the Seattle Mariners’ general manager position in 2000, he brought Norton with him. While with the Mariners, Norton helped the club draft and sign Canadians Michael Saunders (Victoria, B.C.), Phillippe Aumont (Gatineau, Que.) and Tyler O’Neill (Maple Ridge, B.C.). For his excellence in scouting, Norton was named Mariners’ International Scout of the Year in 2007 and Canadian Scout of the Year by the Canadian Baseball Network in 1998 and 2013. He was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016.

He passed away on January 6, 2018 at the age of 75 after a valiant battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease).

Past Winners of the Wayne Norton Award, for top Canadian minor league pitcher (affiliated ranks)

(Named the Wayne Norton award starting in 2021)

2008 _ Scott Diamond (Guelph, Ont.) Braves.

2009 _ James Henderson (Calgary, Alta.) Brewers and John Axford (Port Dover, Ont.) Brewers.

2010 _ Scott Mathieson (Langley, BC) Phillies.

2011 _ Mark Hardy (Campbell River, BC) Padres.

2012 _ James Henderson (Calgary, Alta.) Brewers.

2013 _ Andrew Albers (North Battleford, Sask.) Twins

2014 _ Nick Pivetta (Victoria, BC) Nationals.

2015 _ Adam Loewen (Surrey, BC) Phillies and Shane Dawson (Drayton Valley, Alta.) Jays.

2016 _ Jameson Taillon (The Woodlands, Tex.) Pirates and Nick Pivetta (Victoria, BC) Phillies.

2017 _ Michael Soroka (Calgary, Alta.) Braves.

2018 _ Jordan Romano (Markham, Ont.) Jays.

2019 _ Jordan Balazovic (Mississauga, Ont.) Twins.

2020 _ Minor league seasons cancelled, COVID-19 pandemic.

2021 _ Matt Brash (Kingston, Ont.) Mariners.

2022 _ Mitch Bratt (Newmarket, Ont.) Rangers.

2023 _ Cade Smith (Abbotsford, BC) Guardians.

2024 _ Matt Wilkinson (Surrey, BC) Guardians.

2025 _ Jonah Tong (Markham, Ont.) Mets

*Bolded winners have played in the major leagues.

Glew: Tong's "Vulcan" changeup helped him earn CBN's Norton Award