As the Red Sox continue to shuffle their pitching, the organization's top prospect is set to be called for the first time in 2026.
It's been a hectic week for members of the Boston Red Sox pitching staff, as the injury to Sonny Gray's hamstring has forced the team to shuffle both their rotation and bullpen. That shuffling will continue on Thursday when the Red Sox are, per MassLive's Chris Cotillo, set to recall their top prospect, Payton Tolle, to get the start in Thursday night's series finale against the New York Yankees.
Ahead of Wednesday's 4-1 loss to the Yankees, Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced that Brayan Bello and Garrett Crochet would be pushed back one day, paving the way for Tolle to make his 2026 debut.
After being held from his scheduled start on Sunday afternoon as a precaution over potential rainout in the big leagues, Tolle has remained in limbo in the wake of the Gray injury, not appearing in game action in 11 days.
The last time Tolle was on the bump for Worcester, he threw five shutout innings, striking out six, allowing just three hits against former first-overall pick Travis Bazzana and the Columbus Clippers.
Overall, Tolle has allowed five earned runs on 12 hits across 15 innings of work, good for an opponent batting average of .214 and an ERA of 3.00. His 31.1 percent K-rate represents almost a 3% rise from last year's Triple-A numbers.
Tolle made his major league debut last August, going pitch-for-pitch with Pirates' ace Paul Skenes in a night to remember at Fenway Park. He did not fare as well in his subsequent starts, allowing seven runs, four of them on home runs, across just five innings before being moved to the bullpen for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs.
Tolle made a strong push to make the Red Sox' opening-day roster, allowing three runs on eight hits, striking out 13 and walking only one in 10.1 innings in spring training before ultimately losing the fifth-starter job to fellow rookie Connelly Early.
When Tolle returns to the mound at Fenway, he'll feature a new arsenal, dubbed the "three-headed monster of hard", featuring his signature fastball, as well as a reworked cutter, and a new sinker that was developed over the offseason. According to Twitter/X account Red Sox Stats, Tolle has thrown hard pitches 171 of 220 total pitches this year, using the cutter, sinker, and fastball nearly equally, mixing in 26 curves and 23 changeups.
Chris Henrique of Boston Sports Journal asked Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey about the development of the new sinker, "It's really about accentuating what he does well. We know he has elite extension, elite four-seam; how do we tap into that a little bit more to give hitters a different look?" Bailey said. “A lot of people tend to go off-speed pitches… there's another unlock here, potentially, if we can, we can master the two-seam to kind of tunnel off the four-seam and the cutter and just go the opposite direction and then take some ease off of the curveball and on the change-up. We know we want to use those in the bottom of the zone and maybe grab a strike here and there, but really just tap into what he does well to give him another weapon," he continued.
Tolle will look to provide a spark to a Red Sox clubhouse that is desperately in need of one, as they look to salvage the series finale against New York. He'll get the start opposite Cam Schlittler of the Yankees. First pitch from Fenway Park set for 6:10 p.m. ET.
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