How Did Mets' Top Pitching Prospects Perform In Spring Training?

[Cade Lalim]

Image courtesy of © Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

With spring training wrapped up and the major and minor league seasons underway, it’s time to check in with the New York Mets' top pitching prospects and how well their stuff played during spring training. Let's dive into the metrics of each pitcher's arsenal, and highlight what they did well and where there is room for improvement.

Heading into the beginning of last season, the Mets top pitching prospects were headlined by Brandon Sproat, Jonah Tong, and Nolan McLean. Fast-forward to the end of last season, where all three of them made their major-league debuts to varying success.

This offseason, the Mets traded Brandon Sproat and top infield prospect Jett Williams to the Milwaukee Brewers. That was a hefty cost, but at least they got a new ace of the staff in Freddy Peralta, and a really solid arm in Tobias Myers.

For this breakdown, the prospect rankings were provided by MLB Pipeline. The top five pitchers in the Mets organization currently consist of Nolan McLean (#1), Jonah Tong (#3), Jack Wenninger (#7), Jonathan Santucci (#10), and Will Watson (#11). 

Since Santucci did not pitch in any major-league games this spring, there is no public data on his pitches. Instead, he will be replaced by Zach Thornton (#15), who is the next-highest ranked pitching prospect within the Mets organization.

Breaking Down Mets' Top 5 Pitching Prospects In Spring Training

Nolan McLean (RHP)

McLean is entering his second year in the majors and looks to be a huge contributor to the Mets rotation. McLean will still be considered a prospect until he logs two more innings in the majors. He only pitched in one spring training game before heading off to join the rotation for Team USA. Between one spring game with the Mets and two with Team USA, there is a pretty good sized sample of pitches to examine.

In a 169-pitch sample, McLean had a really good tjStuff+ score of 108. He featured a five-pitch mix, all five of which graded out average or better. He threw his sweeper the most, 51 times, and it was also tied with his four-seam fastball to be his best pitch. His sweeper was nasty, generating -18.8 inches of horizontal break, with -0.9 inches of induced vertical break. It got batters to chase out of the zone 48.1% and had a wOBA of .123, both being excellent marks. It’s not a slow sweeper either, as it averaged 86.2 mph. Overall, McLean did a really good job this spring generating chases outside the zone, but did struggle to keep pitches in the zone. His sweeper was an exception, as he executed that pitch really well (47.1 zone%).

Jonah Tong (RHP)

Tong is slated to begin the 2026 campaign with the Triple-A Syracuse Mets. He made a brief appearance with the Mets at the end of last season, making five starts while totaling 18.2 innings. His ERA was high at a 7.71 clip, but did strike out a solid 22 batters. Tong, along with the remaining three pitchers on this list, has a significantly lower pitch sample to work with than McLean.

This spring, Tong pitched seven innings between two starts, giving us a 174-pitch sample to work with. His four-seam fastball, which has a tjStuff+ score 112, was his best offering. It averaged 94.6 mph, with 18.8 inches of induced vertical break and five inches of horizontal break. The spin rate was right around average sitting at a 2293 average. Even though the traits of his fastball are good, it got hit pretty hard and he had trouble keeping it in the zone. Note that he also threw it the most at a 42% rate.

He also featured a solid cutter with a tjStuff+ score of 102. All across the board, this was probably Tong's most consistent pitch. Besides his four-seamer and cutter, he also threw a changeup, curveball, and slider. He threw his changeup 33 times, but only used his curveball and slider for a combined 17 pitches. Those three pitches all graded out to be average to below-average pitches. His strengths were his solid extension and release height along with his really good four-seamer, but until he throws more consistent strikes and get whiffs on pitches in the zone, he'll be a step away from the big leagues.

Jack Wenninger (RHP)

Wenninger is a 24 year-old starting pitcher making his way through the Mets' farm system. Last year he made 26 starts, all with the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies. He had a really nice season, posting a 2.92 ERA over 135.2 innings, with a 1.15 WHIP. Wenninger is projected to reach the big leagues sometime in the next 12 months.

This spring, he pitched in three games, making one start while totaling 6.2 innings. We have a 192-pitch sample to examine his five-pitch arsenal. He features a solid four-seam fastball in which he threw the most at 33.3%. It received a rating of 101 according to tjStuff+, and averaged 95.3 mph. His best pitches are his slider (106), changeup (105), and sweeper (104). His changeup this spring got the best results, as it fetched a 55.2 chase% and a 54.8 whiff%. It also had a xwOBA of .085, which is preposterous. He did a really good job overall of generating whiff on all his pitches except the sweeper. His extension is subpar, averaging six feet this spring, but his release height is really good at 6.5 feet. This is as a result of him standing 6’4” with a pretty high arm angle. With his changeup being the only pitch that generated chase, his other four pitches didn’t do a great job of baiting batters to swing out of the zone.

Will Watson (RHP)

Watson is another really good arm in the Mets organization, who along with Wenninger is on track to make his major league debut at some point in 2026. He’s a 23-year-old righty that spent time at three levels last year between Single-A and Double-A. He made 23 starts across 30 total games, while pitching to a 2.60 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP. His K/9 ratio was really good at 10.53, but had a high walk ratio of 4.30 BB/9. He only gave up eight home runs the whole year, which is good to see.

Watson has the smallest sample size out of these five pitchers, only appearing in one game where he logged 3.1 innings in relief. This gives us a 40-pitch sample. In his one game of action this spring, Watson threw five different pitches including a slider, four-seam, cutter, sinker, and a changeup. In this small sample, his best pitch was his four-seam fastball, which had a tjStuff+ grade of 102. It averaged 93.1 mph 16.4 inches of induced vertical break and 10.4 inches of horizontal break. He threw his slider the most, 11 times, and it was also his next best pitch receiving a tjStuff+ rating of 101. It had -5.1 inches of horizontal break and 3.7 inches of induced vertical break while averaging 85.9 mph.

Zach Thornton (LHP)

Thornton spent his 2025 season between High-A and Double-A. He made 14 starts, while logging 72.2 innings. His surface stats were really good, with a 1.98 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP. He struck out an average number of batters, but did a great job not giving free passes and not giving up homers. He’s projected to reach the major leagues during 2027, putting him a little behind Wenninger and Watson.

Thornton made two spring training appearances, both being starts. He pitched 6.2 innings and only gave up one earned run. He threw 104 pitches this spring between five different pitches. He worked mainly with three pitches including his slider, sinker, and four-seam, but threw a curveball and changeup way less than the others. His best pitch was his four-seamer, which averaged 91.3 mph and was thrown 22.6% of the time. It had 14.5 inches of induced vertical break, while moving -1.5 inches horizontally. He did a good job throwing strikes with his four-seamer along with his sinker. His slider was thrown in the zone 47.2% of the time which is right around average. It's an interesting profile for a lefty, but still wanting for some refinement.

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