Jonah Tong gets a look with 16 games left

The Mets slotted Jonah Tong into the rotation as they close out a lost season, a move that fits the moment. With Tylor Megill and Reed Garrett both on the 60-day IL, and the club sitting 68-78 with 16 games remaining, there is no reason not to see what a young arm can do.

The established starters have held up reasonably well given the circumstances. Nolan McLean is 11-9 with a 3.24 ERA and has been the rotation's anchor all year. Christian Scott, striking out better than a batter per inning, has shown enough to earn confidence going forward. But the back end of the staff has been a different story — Kodai Senga's ERA sits north of six, and the innings have had to come from somewhere.

Tong is that somewhere, at least for now. The grounding here is thin — no stat line to cite, no material news to point to — which is itself the story. This is a September look, the kind of audition a franchise runs when the standings are settled and the questions shift to next year. With 16 games left and an elimination number of 21, the Mets aren't building toward October. They're building toward something further out.

Worth watching, nothing more.