When Payton Tolle was giving an in-game interview to NESN last week, there, just off-camera, was Red Sox rotation mate Connelly Early, playfully pelting him in the head with a piece of gum.
And when Tolle was finished throwing a between-starts bullpen session at Cleveland's Progressive Field on Sunday, there was Early again, walking with him back toward the clubhouse as the two talked mechanics.
This is the partnership -- equal parts work and fun -- that has benefited these budding big league aces and best of buds.
The young Boston lefties follow each other in numerical order on the roster, with Tolle No. 70 and Early No. 71. They follow each other in the rotation, with Early pitching on Tuesday and Tolle on Wednesday in the upcoming home series against the Orioles. And in all that following, they help and humor each other along the way.
“You have somebody going through it with you,” Tolle said. “You’re able to talk to somebody about baseball, about life. We don't have kids or anything like that. We're just here to have fun, play baseball and we're able to mesh together.”
Adds Early: “We'll talk crap to each other and try to get each other a little fired up every once in a while, especially in such a long season.”
The Red Sox are absent their ace in Garrett Crochet, who just had a setback in his recovery from shoulder inflammation. But amid that early toll have emerged Early and Tolle. They’ve been blessings, each lefty making the most of his first extended look at the MLB level by keeping the injury-ridden rotation afloat.
Between the 23-year-old Tolle’s power and the 24-year-old Early’s precision, the Red Sox are enjoying two developmental success stories -- not just because of how they play but how they play off each other.
“They just get along great,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. "Different personalities, slightly different arsenals, but it's cool watching them talk through things. You can see, maybe one just finished pitching, and he's talking to the other about what he saw with the lineup. It's a cool dynamic.”
Early takes a 2.95 ERA and 136 ERA+ (36% better than league average) into Tuesday’s start against Baltimore. His strength is his command of his offspeed offerings that keeps opponents guessing and chasing.
“He throws his offspeed pretty good,” a smiling Tolle said, intentionally underselling it. “I can throw it sometimes, but he’s more consistent.”
Tolle has a 2.61 ERA and 154 ERA+ going into Wednesday’s start. Where he shines is with a power arsenal that has him striking out opponents at a 28.6% clip, and that fits right in line with his more demonstrative personality.
“He provides a lot of energy,” Early said of Tolle. “He keeps me going every single day, on the field and in the weight room. He’s very, very competitive, and he’s always got a smile on his face and is almost guaranteed to be in a happy mood.”
Early and Tolle first crossed paths during the Red Sox’s offseason training program in Fort Myers, Fla., in the fall of 2024, shortly after Tolle was taken in the second round of the MLB Draft out of Texas Christian University. Early had been a fifth-round pick out of Virginia (with a previous stop at West Point) the year before, so they were essentially in the same boat as pitching prospects who didn’t have first-round pedigree but did have talent and aptitude. They bonded on Florida’s ballfields, beaches and golf courses, shared a clubhouse shortly thereafter in Double-A and made their MLB debuts within two weeks of each other last season.
Much was made this spring about their competition for a rotation spot (Early won out over Tolle, though both had terrific camps), but, the MLB attrition rate being what it is, it didn’t take long for them be slotted in alongside each other.
“Especially now that [Early’s] got the day before me, I get a little bit of that competitive feeling of like, now I want to go out there and I want to try to beat him,” Tolle said. “It’s not like we’re actually going up against each other and I want to beat you, but it’s a friendly battle. And it also carries into just how he has a plan [against an opponent] and can talk to me about it.”
This Red Sox season has been a struggle -- especially (and oddly) at home. But Early and Tolle have both done their part to keep the rotation from going off the rails without Crochet, and they’ve done it by relying upon each other.
“Hopefully, we can just keep doing it, you know?” Early said. “It's nearly impossible to get through a full season without there being an injury to at least at least one of the guys in the rotation. There’s always somebody who's got something going on. So for us to be able to be healthy and go out there and compete right now is huge.”