{"id":366626,"date":"2025-12-24T20:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T20:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366626\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T20:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T20:19:07","slug":"red-sox-could-have-mlbs-best-left-handed-pitching-prospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/366626\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Could Have MLB\u2019s Best Left-Handed Pitching Prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s an early Christmas present for you: The Boston Red Sox have arguably the best left-handed pitching prospect in MLB. And it\u2019s not Connelly Early<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MLB.com\u2019s Jim Callis<\/a> made the case for Payton Tolle<\/a> as the best southpaw down on the farm.<\/p>\n

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Callis noted Tolle started the 2025 season as Boston\u2019s No. 16 prospect overall. But the burly lefty finished the season as the Red Sox\u2019s No. 2 prospect<\/a> and No. 28 in all of baseball<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tolle rocketed through the farm system<\/a> in 2025, advancing all the way from High-A Greenville to The Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He appeared in seven games<\/a> with the Red Sox, making three starts. While he posted a 6.06 ERA, Tolle flashed elite strikeout stuff, mowing down 19 batters in 16.1 innings.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn the first half of the season he had a 46 percent swing-and-miss rate on his fastball in the Minors. I\u2019ve never seen that,\u201d Callis wrote. \u201cThey\u2019ve had him dial back his fastball usage, his slider got better, he added a little power to it, his changeup has gotten a little bit better.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s always thrown strikes. We saw him get to the big leagues and pitch in the playoffs,\u201d Callis added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Red Sox helped him get better, and that fastball is so good that if you wanted to make the case that he\u2019s the best left-handed pitching prospect in baseball, I think you\u2019re arguing him with Thomas White<\/a> (Miami Marlins<\/a>) and Kade Anderson<\/a> (Seattle Mariners<\/a>), you could make a case for Payton Tolle. Which, a year ago, I never would have thought I would have heard myself say,\u201d Callis concluded.<\/p>\n

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Tolle could be a big part of the big-league pitching staff in 2026. It just depends on how the rest of the offseason goes.<\/p>\n

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow<\/a> has added right-handers Sonny Gray<\/a> and Johan Oviedo<\/a> through a pair of trades. But Boston let Lucas Giolito<\/a> walk in free agency and sent Hunter Dobbins <\/a>to the St. Louis Cardinals in the Willson Contreras<\/a> deal.<\/p>\n

Even if he doesn\u2019t break spring training with the Red Sox, Tolle will find his way back to the majors. It\u2019s just a matter of time.<\/p>\n

More Red Sox:<\/p>\n

Masataka Yoshida\u2019s 2026 Role With Red Sox Remains Shrouded In Mystery <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s an early Christmas present for you: The Boston Red Sox have arguably the best left-handed pitching prospect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[3959,49,48,17946,72540,157126,32064,7678,3981,462,60754,470,13988,82,3982,13989],"class_list":["post-366626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-craig-breslow","tag-hunter-dobbins","tag-jim-callis","tag-johan-oviedo","tag-lucas-giolito","tag-miami-marlins","tag-mlb","tag-payton-tolle","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-sonny-gray","tag-sports","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-willson-contreras"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}