Red Sox Have Another Top 100 Prospect

A New Kind of Red Sox Farm System

While the Red Sox have produced a couple of bats, their farm system has been inconsistent in developing pitching for a long time now. Right-hander Brayan Bello seems to be coming into his own. Before that, it’s hard to pinpoint a pitcher that the Red Sox developed. Clay Buchholz? Jon Lester? Those were a long time ago.

Those days seem to be coming to a close with the Red Sox aiming at college pitchers in the draft, and now the emergence of Tolle in the top 100 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline.

Payton Tolle’s Profile

Tolle was a second-round selection in last year’s MLB Draft. Since then, the left-hander has made it to Double-A Portland in the Red Sox system. With the Sea Dogs, he’s thrown 14 innings but has struck out 22 batters. He’s displayed huge swing and miss stuff throughout college and now in the minors. In college, he had a 10.5 K/9. This season, he’s kicked it up a notch with a 14.3 K/9 across two levels of the minors.

Sox Prospects has Tolle ranked No. 3 in the Red Sox farm system. His fastball tops out at 98 MPH, and consistently sits in the 94-97 MPH range, according to Sox Prospects. They go on to say that his fastball garners the most swing and miss, while most of his other pitches need some work.

MLB ETA for Payton Tolle

MLB Pipeline puts his ETA to the majors as sometime in 2026. However, depending on how the Red Sox decide to go, he could see some big league action down the stretch as the Red Sox hope to punch a ticket to the postseason for the first time since 2021. Sox Prospects estimates that his ceiling is a number two starter if he can develop his secondary offerings.

That being said, his fastball has enough swing and miss and is good enough that he’s already striking out batters at an alarming rate. If the Red Sox do need a lefty down the stretch, it could easily be Tolle.

Red Sox Farm Moving Forward

Right now, the Red Sox have Franklin Arias as their No. 1 prospect on MLB Pipeline. Once Roman Anthony graduates, they’ll have three prospects in the top 100, with Arias currently ranked at 37. It’s certainly a different direction for the Red Sox. Their farm system was led by Anthony, who held the No. 1 Prospect in all of MLB this season. Now? Most of that is outside the organization or on the major league club.

Time will tell what their newest draft picks will land at. For now, the future looks bright with the major league team, and the farm system appears to be rebuilding to help maintain a level of sustainability that the Red Sox are striving to achieve.