New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns has earned himself a reputation as someone with an eye for bargain starting pitchers. Last year he hit on Luis Severino and Sean Manaea, and until Griffin Canning tore his Achilles in June, the righty looked like the latest reclamation project that Stearns could take credit for.
Right about the time that Canning went down, Frankie Montas made his Mets debut. Montas signed a two-year, $34 million contract to come to New York this offseason, but missed the early part of the season as he recovered from a spring training lat strain.
It's possible that Montas still needs time to fully get into gear, but his first seven starts in Flushing have given fans little reason to believe that he'll be the latest Stearns W. The righty got rocked by the Giants on Sunday, giving up seven earned runs over four innings. Three of those came on a grooved fastball to Rafael Devers that the new Giant launched halfway up the upper deck. The end result was a 12-4 Mets loss, their fifth in six games.
This was the fourth time in seven starts that Montas has given up at least four earned runs, and he's yet to get out of the sixth inning in a game. The Mets built a super bullpen at the trade deadline by adding Ryan Helsley, Tyler Rogers and Gregory Soto to their core of Edwin Diaz, Brooks Raley and Reid Garrett, but if Montas gets shelled before anyone can even begin warming up, what was it all for?
Part of what made Stearns' deadline so fantastic was that he acquired real talent without giving up high-end prospects to do it. Some of the prospects he was able to keep happen to be starting pitchers, and they're currently tearing it up in the Minors. And yet, despite the Mets needing all the wins they can get to keep up with the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East, New York shows no sign of making a change to its rotation.
Frankie Montas will make his next scheduled outing Saturday in Milwaukee, Carlos Mendoza said. But Mets officials are discussing the idea of using an opener ahead of him.
— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) August 4, 2025
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The Mets have to be ready to pull the plug on Frankie Montas and give their young guns a chance to shine
Three of the top five prospects in the Mets' farm system are starters, and there's an argument to be made that they're all ready for primetime. Brandon Sproat might be the first in line: The 2023 second-round pick out of Florida has been nearly unhittable lately at Triple-A Syracuse, allowing a total of two earned runs in his last six starts.
That's less runs in over a month than Montas allowed in either the third or fourth inning on Sunday, take your pick. In those six starts, Sproat has struck out 39 while only giving up 16 hits and 11 walks. Relying on a Gator has worked out pretty well for the Mets already with Pete Alonso, so why not give him a Gainesville buddy who also happens to throw an upper-90s fastball and a wipeout changeup?
Sproat has really come on lately, but his Syracuse teammate and fellow 2023 draft pick Nolan McLean has actually been even more consistent all season. In 16 starts this year across Double-A and Triple-A, he has a 2.60 ERA and a WHIP of 1.14. His WHIP in Syracuse has actually been even better than it was in Binghamton, and though his ERA is higher, it's still a very good 3.01. McLean's sweeper is his best pitch, but he has a five-pitch arsenal that he's really honed since giving up being a two-way player and focusing exclusively on the mound last summer.
Sproat and McLean are the most likely candidates to get a call-up soon, and given the state of the Mets' starting pitching even beyond Montas, they should both get a chance. There's another pitcher waiting in the wings, though, who could be better than both of them: Jonah Tong has drawn positive comparisons to Tim Lincecum with his trademark delivery, and his results have been just as spectacular as Big Time Timmy Jim's back-to-back Cy Young-winning seasons.
Tong has shot up the Mets prospect rankings all the way to No. 2 behind Jett Williams, and it's easy to see why. Every Tong start has become an event, and he rarely disappoints. He has a 1.66 ERA in Binghamton this year across 18 starts, and hasn't given up more than two runs in a start since April. He leads the Eastern League in pretty much every conceivable category, from his 146 strikeouts (second place has just 113) to his .139 batting average against (second is .203) to his 0.93 WHIP (next best is 1.00).
At the very least, Tong is due for a promotion to Syracuse, a move that could go hand-in-hand with Sproat and/or McLean getting the call. Whether that means Montas is released or moved to a long relief role in the bullpen is moot; by this point, Mets fans would be fine either way.
Just as the Mets once had Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndegaard all coming up together, Sproat, McLean and Tong could be the new generation of stars-in-waiting. It's past time they get the chance to show it on the biggest stage, especially if the Mets are serious about making a World Series push.