Jonah Tong

Tong had the best minor-league season of any pitching prospect in 2025, culminating with him making five starts in the big-league rotation to close the year. The spindly 6-foot-1 righty logged a 1.43 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, 179 strikeouts and a 52.9 percent groundball rate in 113.2 innings (22 starts) across Double-A and Triple-A. Among minor-league pitchers who logged 100-plus innings, Tong's 29.9 K-BB% was easily the top mark, with Rays righty Ty Johnson ranking second with a 25.8 K-BB%. Tong's skeptics coming into the year were worried about his size -- he is listed at 180 pounds -- and ability to handle a starter's workload while holding velocity deep into games, especially given his high-effort delivery. After throwing 113 innings in 2024, he tallied 132.1 innings in 2025. His mid-90s fastball averaged 19.8 inches of induced vertical break during his stint in the majors, which is elite movement for a four-seamer. Tong leans on his fastball while throwing his plus 86-mph changeup over a quarter of the time and mixing in his curveball 12 percent of the time. His 7.71 ERA in the majors is almost double his 3.96 xFIP, as he was quite unlucky (45.1 LOB%, 14.3% HR/FB, .396 BABIP). Tong should compete for a spot in the big-league rotation during spring training, but he has only made two starts at Triple-A, albeit two dominant starts, so it's not guaranteed that he'll break camp in the majors. Read Past Outlooks