{"id":419228,"date":"2026-01-20T18:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/419228\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T18:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T18:46:08","slug":"red-sox-rookie-got-a-nibble-of-mlb-success-but-now-wants-the-steak-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/419228\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox rookie got a \u2018nibble\u2019 of MLB success \u2014\u00a0but now wants \u2018the steak\u2019 in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 In his first professional season, Payton Tolle went from starting at High-A Greenville to getting a key out in a playoff game <\/a>at Yankee Stadium six months later. He\u2019s hopeful 2025 was simply a taste of what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited,\u201d Tolle said earlier this month at Fenway Fest. \u201cI\u2019m hungry, too. You get a little nibble, but I\u2019ll hopefully get the full steak this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tolle, who made his major league debut on August 29 and pitched seven times down the stretch for the Red Sox late in the season<\/a>, enters 2026 with much-higher expectations than he did a year ago, when he was preparing to throw his first professional pitch just months after being selected in the second round of the draft. A year ago this time, Tolle was golfing at home in Oklahoma. Things are different now for the 23-year-old, who is widely considered Boston\u2019s top overall prospect and has been mentioned in trade rumors<\/a> throughout the winter. He has also become a bit of a fan favorite, as evidenced by the cheers he received when introduced on the Fenway Fest stage.<\/p>\n

Tolle will be in the mix for an Opening Day rotation spot, though the club\u2019s additions of Ranger Su\u00e1rez, Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo to a group headed by returnees Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello certainly lessens the chances of the rookie making the team. In camp, he\u2019ll compete with the likes of Connelly Early, Kutter Crawford, Patrick Sandoval and Kyle Harrison, all depth options in case someone gets hurt. Especially with Su\u00e1rez now in the fold on a five-year, $130 million contract<\/a>, there now seems to be a good chance Tolle \u2014 and Early, for that matter \u2013 begin the year at Triple-A Worcester if they\u2019re not traded for a bat. That doesn\u2019t mean Tolle won\u2019t contribute, potentially in a big way, at some point in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for a while, the goal was to be a big leaguer,\u201d Tolle said. \u201cNow, it\u2019s well, \u2018We want to stay a big leaguer\u2019 until a few years down the line where it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, I want to be known as one of the best big leaguers.\u2019 So it\u2019s just a constant mindset of, \u2018What\u2019s the next step? How can I be better and how can I stay hungry?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Tolle\u2019s focus this winter has been on fine-tuning his pitch mix. During his meteoric rise across four levels on 2025, he relied on a dominant fastball that averaged 96.7 mph and reached triple digits in the majors. The next step is turning his slider and changeup \u2014 pitches that were at times, non-competitive during his big league stint \u2014 into real weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrying to figure out that changeup,\u201d Tolle said. \u201cIt\u2019s coming along. I like where I\u2019m at with it. Working on the curveball, big one. So I think that\u2019s going to be what is going to take me to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his efforts to become a more complete pitcher, Tolle has spent time looking back, not so fondly, at an outing in which his limitations were most exposed. On September 5 in Phoenix, Tolle \u2014 making his second career MLB start<\/a> \u2014 had no feel for any off-speed pitches and was hit very hard by the Diamondbacks, who sat on his fastball and hit it hard, tagging him for five earned runs on five hits (including two deep homers) and four walks in three innings. In total, Tolle threw his four-seamer 64.1% of the time once he reached the majors. He knows keeping hitters off balance with his cutter, slider, a kick-changeup and curveball is important as he continues to develop.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made it to where people only hunted (my) fastball because they didn\u2019t have to respect anything else with the curveball,\u201d Tolle said. \u201cI go back to that Arizona start a lot. The off-speed, nothing landed for a strike. I couldn\u2019t find anything other than fastballs \u2014 and they teed off on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust trying to find (off-speed) in the zone as much as I can. The vertical break is something I\u2019m trying to (do).\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout his offseason in Oklahoma, Tolle has focused on setting a new personal velocity record \u2014 that\u2019s now at 100.8 mph, he said \u2014 and create more separation with the changeup in order to increase strikeouts on the pitch. After throwing a career-high 107 \u2154 innings across four levels, he delayed his winter throwing program in order to make sure he was fully recovered.<\/p>\n

Now, with less than a month to go before spring training, Tolle is excited to take his work to Fort Myers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a lot of things once I got called up and I learned,\u201d Tolle said. \u201cIt\u2019s, \u2018OK, now we can go into this offseason, refine what we have right now and go into next season with the most confidence we can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 In his first professional season, Payton Tolle went from starting at High-A Greenville to getting a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,2008,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-419228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-mlb-baseball","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}