NEW YORK -- About four hours before Jonah Tong was set to make his Major League debut, a stadium worker stationed outside the Mets’ clubhouse busied himself by watching a television segment about the team’s newest pitcher. When the camera cut to a close-up of Tong’s face, the worker shook his head.

“He’s a freaking child,” he said of the Mets' No. 4 prospect, per MLB Pipeline. “And they’re gonna put him on the bump tonight.”

To underestimate Tong based on his baby-faced appearance, of course, would be folly. Tong made it to Citi Field on Friday night for a reason. He blazed his path to Queens by leveraging his mid-90s fastball, a Vulcan changeup that’s become his best secondary pitch and an overhand curveball that he tends to locate where he wants.

With those weapons at his disposal

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