7 K's in 3 IP -- and 5 in a row?! Tolle makes electric case for rotation

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Payton Tolle fired a fastball at 100.4 mph for one punchout, stuck the landing on a curveball for a called strike three, and didn’t try to hide his emotion during any of it.

MLB Pipeline’s No. 19 prospect (and tops in Boston’s recently released Top 30) is an open book.

The 23-year-old lefty raised both fists in the air at times, pointed to teammates at others and washed away the sour taste of his first two subpar outings in Grapefruit League action with a dominant performance on Wednesday against the Yankees.

“I play with joy, and you’re going to see what I’m feeling and you’re always going to see the good stuff,” Tolle said. “That’s how I play, and I’m not ashamed of that.”

In a three-inning relief appearance on a day ace Garrett Crochet started for the Red Sox, Tolle gave up one hit and one walk while striking out seven. Five of those strikeouts came in succession.

“I felt good just working down through the zone, and to get an ABS strikeout in there was pretty fun too,” said Tolle. “Didn’t get lucky. Just got to play in the zone now. It was a good feeling. Like I said after the last couple of outings, the [two-strike] kill hasn’t been there. And today, I felt more comfortable with two strikes.”

Tolle is competing with his good friend Connelly Early and offseason acquisition Johan Oviedo for the fifth spot in the rotation. Veterans Patrick Sandoval and Kutter Crawford are also in that mix, but their build-ups after missing all of last season likely won’t have them ready for Opening Day.

While a decision is weeks from being made, Tolle certainly didn’t hurt his candidacy on Wednesday.

“Much better than the last one,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “The fastball plays. We know that. Velo was up, too. He threw strikes. Secondary pitches were good. If we can do that over and over and over and over again, then we’ve got a really good pitcher.”

Less than two years removed from being Boston’s second-round pick in the 2024 Draft, Tolle has flown through the system. But he knows he is far from a finished product. He needs to show consistency to earn a roster spot for Opening Day. Clearly, Wednesday was a positive step.

In 2025, as an incentive to help players throughout the organization maximize their velocity, the Red Sox gave out “En fuego” t-shirts to any pitcher who hit 100 mph on the radar gun during a game. Tolle was unabashedly excited after hitting that milestone in an outing for the Red Sox in September.

However, Tolle likely won’t get a new shirt for hitting triple digits in a Spring Training game.

“I came back to the dugout and said, ‘Are we doing t-shirts this year?’ And [one of the coaches] said, ‘You keep doing that, you get a lot of outs, you get a trophy at the end of the year.’ I said, ‘A t-shirt would be nice along the way.’ It was good. It was good to reach back a bit and just be aggressive in the zone.”

Tolle finished his 44-pitch afternoon with a swinging strikeout on a curveball. In truth, that was more important than the way he gripped and ripped his fastball. Of Tolle’s eight curveballs, the Yankees swung through two of them and three more were called strikes.

“You guys [in the media] have been talking about it all offseason, how I need to have a next pitch,” said Tolle. “It’s going to be exciting. If I can continue to fill the zone with it and also the changeup too, it will help out a lot. I’ll be able to go deeper into games.”

A full pitch mix would allow Tolle to graduate from prospect to player and gain full residency at Fenway Park.

“If he's able to do that, then he’s very tough to hit,” said Cora. “He’s working hard. He's winning those battles now, and it was a great day for him.”