Ahead of their series finale against the Mariners, the Mets have optioned Jonah Tong to Triple-A. To take his place on the roster, the club has recalled
right-hander Joey Gerber.Tong was brought up recently due to the mounting injuries to the club’s pitching staff and has experienced mixed results while primarily serving as a reliever and a bulk arm behind an opener. His first appearance was strong, as he shut out the Marlins through three innings to close out a 2-1 loss at loanDepot Park. What was especially
encouraging is that he limited the traffic on the basepaths, walking one and not allowing a hit while needing just 28 pitches to complete his three innings of work.
Since then, he has struggled with his command. He earned a win in 3 2/3 innings against the Reds while serving as the bulk pitcher, though the underlying numbers weren’t encouraging. He walked four and allowed three hits in those 3 2/3 innings, though he was just charged with one unearned run. Yesterday’s outing was his worst, as he was tagged for five runs (four earned) on five hits, with two walks in 3 1/3 innings. Overall, he walked seven and struck out seven in ten innings. Tong was very much not ready when he was called up and will go down for some more work at Triple-A, where he posted a 5.68 ERA in 38 innings across his nine starts before coming up to the majors.
With Kodai Senga potentially on the way back as early as next week, sending Tong down makes sense in any event, since he’ll likely slot right into that role in the rotation. For now, the club is in need of some relief help, as they’ve used a lot of pitchers over the past two days given that both were, essentially, bullpen games. Gerber made one appearance for New York back on April 13, where he pitched the final two innings of the team’s loss to the Dodgers and struck out five while allowing two hits and walking one batter. In Triple-A, the righty has allowed 15 runs (14 earned) with ten strikeouts over 14 1/3 innings, which amounts to an 8.89 ERA on the year.
