The Boston Red Sox have prioritized improvements to their pitching staff and development throughout the organization in the last few seasons.
Inconsistent starting pitching has been one of the Red Sox's greatest hindrances since they won the 2018 World Series. Keeping pitchers healthy is always a struggle (we're looking at you, Chris Sale) and quality pitching depth has been hard to come by in Boston's farm system.
That's all started to change since Craig Breslow took over as chief baseball officer. The Red Sox have signed, traded for and drafted multiple capable pitchers to bolster their depth and set themselves up for the future. Breslow's 2024 second-round draft pick Payton Tolle, the No. 17 prospect in the Red Sox organization according to MLB Pipeline, is already turning heads in High-A.
Tolle has pitched to a 4.30 ERA over 14.2 innings of work. He's been better than his middling ERA suggests — he's fanned a staggering 29 batters with just five walks, which works out to a borderline unfathomable 17.80 strikeouts per nine innings.
Red Sox No. 17 prospect Payton Tolle is dominating the strike zone in High-A
Tolle's ERA is still recovering from a rough first professional outing. He was rocked for six runs on five hits across 1.2 innings in his first start in Greenville and has been much cleaner since. He allowed one run on three hits in his second start and posted four scoreless innings with a whopping nine strikeouts on April 27. His best performance of the year came on May 4, when he fanned 12 batters over five scoreless innings.
Tolle, 22, was drafted with the 50th overall pick out of Texas Christian University. He clocked a 3.21 ERA over 14 starts across 81.1 innings and fanned 125 batters. He posted a 15-strikeout complete game shutout of Oklahoma State on March 22, 2024.
Tolle boasts a unique build for a pitcher, much like current Red Sox ace, Garrett Crochet. The big lefty stands at 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, almost Crochet's exact profile, and he's already flashed similar strike-throwing prowess to Boston's ace.
If Tolle's ERA keeps dropping like it has from his first, rather disastrous outing in High-A, he could be a candidate for an early promotion. Red Sox fans will love to see another potential ace have a Kristian Campbell-esque rise through the farm system.