It sounds like the NY Mets already have a Freddy Peralta replacement in mind

Jon Heyman recently noted that the New York Mets have high hopes for Jonah Tong, and the reasoning behind it is pretty straightforward. David Stearns has already gone down this road once before, spotting Freddy Peralta’s raw tools in Milwaukee and helping shape him into a key arm. When a front office finds a formula that works, it usually sticks to that same blueprint rather than reinventing the wheel.

The Mets see Tong as a “budding Peralta,” a comparison that ties directly back to Stearns’ history and how this pitching model has worked before. That connection is determining how the organization views Tong’s future, not simply as a promising arm but as a potential successor to a role they already value.

Freddy Peralta comparison hints at Jonah Tong’s future replacement role

Stearns has walked this path before. In 2015, he helped bring Peralta into the Brewers system and watched a fastball-heavy prospect grow into more than a one-pitch arm. When he debuted in 2018, he leaned on his heater nearly 78% of the time and earned the “Fastball Freddy” nickname. Everything changed after 2019, when he focused on refining his breaking pitches and expanding his mix.

Jonah Tong now sits at a similar stage, which is why the comparison feels intentional. He already owns an elite fastball and a devastating Vulcan changeup that produced a 50.8 percent whiff rate and a 31.9 chase rate in the minors this season. Those numbers helped him win the 2025 MiLB Pitcher of the Year Award and showed why the Mets believe his foundation is strong enough to build around moving forward.

His short time in the majors exposed the next adjustment. Hitters sat on his fastball, driving it to a .356 BAA and a .600 slugging percentage across 18.1 innings. The pitch itself did not suddenly lose life. The issue was predictability, something young power arms often face when a lineup does not have to respect a deeper arsenal.

According to Heyman, Tong is likely to begin the season in Triple-A Syracuse to continue his development. He has spent the offseason sharpening his slider to better tunnel off his fastball and expand his arsenal. That approach mirrors the developmental path Stearns once saw work with Peralta, reinforcing the idea that Tong could eventually grow into a future replacement tied to that same blueprint.

Stearns has trusted this blueprint before, and now the Mets appear to be applying it again. If Tong continues down that same path, the “budding Peralta” label may not just be a comparison; it could be the first step toward eventually replacing the very player he is being built to mirror.