Payton Tolle was previously known to Juan Rivera. Even during spring training, when he had worked closely with Tolle, the pitching coach for the Portland Sea Dogs could see that the team’s second-round draft pick from the previous summer had a promising future.
However, Rivera could tell right away that Tolle had improved significantly when he joined the Sea Dogs last week.
According to Rivera, he has significantly improved since spring training. That was the first thought that came to me.
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After a stellar first half with High-A Greenville, Tolle was promoted to Double-A Portland last week, and he immediately made an impression. The 22-year-old allowed one run on one hit and two walks while striking out nine batters over five strong innings in his debut start with the Sea Dogs on Saturday.
Tolle has already made waves in the game with his 3.46 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 54.2 innings pitched at both High-A and Double-A.
Baseball America moved Tolle up 39 spots from his prior rating of No. 88, the second-highest of any prospect on the list, to No. 49 in its most recent Top 100 Prospects rankings, which were made public on Wednesday. Tolle will be the organization’s new top prospect once Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony fall out of the rankings in the upcoming weeks.
According to Baseball America, Tolle has demonstrated a notable increase in velocity while sitting at 94–96 mph with the plus fastball shape that led to his draft selection and huge deal. Tolle is currently at Double-A and appears to have improved since the season began.
According to Rivera, Tolle’s velocity has been gradually increasing since the draft, but his fastball still caused opposing hitters issues even when he was averaging in the low 90s rather than the mid 90s. The 6-foot-6, 250-pound Tolle is an extension monster who throws the ball so close to the plate that batters have no time to track the pitch, which is a major contributing factor.
According to Rivera, it’s nearly imperceptible to hitters. especially when he’s in the striking zone’s upper half.
In college and the lower minors, you can get by with a strong fastball, but as you approach the major leagues, you’ll need more to keep batters off balance. In addition to the slider, which has always been his best secondary pitch, Rivera said he has been thrilled by the growth of Tolle’s entire pitch arsenal, which now includes a changeup, a sweeper, and a curveball.
Specifically, the curveball has genuine potential.
Since it’s not as large and loopy as a conventional curveball, we’re calling it more of a downer, but it also doesn’t really fit into a slider bucket, Rivera explained. Although it’s very new—he’s only thrown it in his previous two games—I believe it’s platoon neutral, he will be able to throw it to both left and right, and it has a lot of promise.
Tolle, the Red Sox’s highest-drafted pitcher since Tanner Houck in 2017, is leading the team’s attempt to bring in a fresh group of young pitchers. Less than a year into his professional career, Tolle is already well on his path to becoming one of the first to arrive at the major leagues, which is the club’s ultimate goal in creating a pitching pipeline that generates a constant flow of impact arms.
In June, Polar Park welcomed both old and new members to the WooSox clubhouse.
Jhostynxon Garcia, an outfielder and MLB Pipeline’s fourth-ranked prospect in the farm system, was promoted to Triple-A in late May and had a stellar start to his WooSox career, hitting three home runs in his first ten games before the month was up. As the year progressed, the 22-year-old, also known as The Password, continued to dominate: in June, he recorded 22 hits, including three doubles, two triples, and six home runs. He will be the only representative of the organization at the All-Star Futures Game on July 12, it was confirmed this week.
However, months ago, big-league manager Alex Cora wasn’t enthused by Garcia’s bat.
He wasn’t at his best offensively when we saw him during spring training. Cora stated that he was off in the interim, mechanically speaking. However, his outfield play opened my eyes. The good thing about these (elite prospects) is that. Although we frequently discuss their offense, I believe they are whole players. The most crucial factor is that they are good defenders and base runners; you don’t want to send only a batter to the major leagues. In the same manner as Roman (Anthony), Marcelo (Mayer), and Christian Campbell are complete players, Garcia is also a complete player. We’re rather pleased with him.
Blaze Jordan, a corner infielder, took some time to make it to Triple-A. He was selected by the Red Sox in the third round of the 2020 draft after graduating from high school, but the coronavirus pandemic had already canceled the whole MiLB season, thus his professional debut had to wait until the next year. On July 23, he arrived in Double-A Portland, where he stayed until June 3 of this year.
In his first month with the WooSox, Jordan proved that he was worthy of his promotion. He hit.290 with a.828 OPS, 27 hits, eight doubles, a triple, and three home runs across 23 June games. He drove in 13 runs, scored 16 runs, and showed excellent plate discipline with 11 strikeouts in 99 plate appearances (11.11 K%), despite only drawing six walks.
The Red Sox immediately optioned left-hander Kyle Harrison to Worcester when he joined the team in the Rafael Devers deal. In his first two WooSox appearances, on June 26 and July 2, he pitched four innings each time but gave up a total of seven earned runs (7.88 ERA) on 13 hits, including three home runs, while striking out six and walking three.
Harrison’s most recent performance indicated that he is making progress in a crucial area of need, even though those figures aren’t quite ideal, particularly for the major return in a transaction of this size. He is largely dependent on his four-seam fastball, and the Red Sox place a high premium on developing and enhancing his pitching repertoire to go along with the four-seamer. Harrison was able to get 18 swings and eight whiffs on alternative pitches during his final out when his go-to pitch wasn’t performing up to par.
After winning the American League Rookie of the Month award in April, Campbell struggled to adjust as pitchers started to pick him apart. Between his Opening Day big league debut to the end of April, the infielder/outfielder hit.301 with a.902 OPS in 29 games. In 22 May games, he batted.134 with an incredible.355 OPS and just 11 hits (10 singles, one home run). His fielding also required improvement, so the Red Sox decided it would be better for him to refine it in Triple-A. He looked better at the plate in games played on June 16th, hitting.205 with a.658 OPS and three extra-baggers among his nine hits before being optioned.
Connelly Early has been the Sea Dogs’ dominating player all season, but Tolle has made a good impact since being called up to Portland.
Early, one of Boston’s most promising pitching prospects, has excelled in Double-A. Through his first 12 appearances, the left-hander had a 6-1 record, a 1.94 ERA, and 81 strikeouts in 55.2 innings pitched, good for fourth place in the Eastern League in both strikeouts and ERA (minimum 50 innings pitched). He won Eastern League Pitcher of the Week after throwing six no-hit innings in his most recent outing on Sunday.
Blake Wehunt (3.76, 63) and David Sandlin (3.66 ERA, 69 strikeouts) have both made an impression with the Sea Dogs, and Yordanny Monegro (2.67, 49) was on track for a stellar season before suffering a Tommy John surgery that ended it.
In his first 13 games with the Red Sox organization, outfielder James Tibbs, one of the prospects acquired in the Devers trade, was demoted to Double-A upon arrival and has batted.280 with a.713 OPS. As the 13th overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, Tibbs had already hit 12 home runs in 57 games with San Francisco’s High-A affiliate before the deal.
Shortstop As the most prolific player at the plate for Portland, Mikey Romero leads all current Sea Dogs players in home runs (7), OPS (.829), hits (49), and doubles (13). Zach Ehrhard, an outfielder, is also becoming a player to keep an eye on. Ehrhard, who was selected in the fourth round of the previous summer’s draft, has done a variety of things. He has a.252 batting average, six home runs, and ten stolen bases.
On June 24, Tolle was promoted to Double-A along with fellow left-hander Eduardo Rivera.
With a pitiful 0.96 ERA over 18.2 innings and just two single home runs given up, Rivera was even more resolute than Tolle.
The Greenville pitching staff had a pretty good month aside from those pitching promotions. No one threw more innings than John Holobetz (22.2), and he and Tolle each struck out a team-high 25 batters. Noah Dean was hit hard, giving up 11 earned runs in 19 innings.
Boston’s Big Three have received a lot of attention, and rightfully so. All of them have advanced to the majors. They are what everyone has been waiting for and what is currently taking place.
The Drive, on the other hand, have some significant rising star power down in Greenville. In June, Miguel Bleis led the team with four home runs, and shortstops Franklin Arias and Nazzan Zanetello tied for the lead with ten RBI each. The most patient man at the plate was outfielder Nelly Taylor, who walked 20 times, followed by Zanetello, who drew 15.
At 18 years old, Justin Gonzales is among the youngest players in all of the affiliated minor leagues. Yet despite being barely older than a high school senior, the teenage standout has made himself right at home with Low-A Salem.
The 6-foot-4 slugger is batting .265 with two home runs, 13 RBI and a .739 OPS through his first 42 games in Salem. Those numbers don t necessarily jump off the page, but Gonzales is facing pitchers who are almost three years older than he is on average, and most notably, he has recorded nearly as many walks (23) as strikeouts (28).
Yoeilin Cespedes, one of Boston s top recent international free agent signings, is batting .231 with five home runs and 32 RBI through 62 games.
Dorian Soto was Boston s top signing from this past January s international free agent class, and the 17-year-old infielder has looked the part so far in the Dominican Summer League. Soto leads the DSL Red Sox Red with a .361 batting average, two home runs and 11 RBI, and he also has a .934 OPS.
