12:47pm: The Red Sox officially announced Tolle’s recall. Fellow lefty Eduardo Rivera was optioned to Worcester in a corresponding move.
10:00am: The Red Sox are calling up left-hander Payton Tolle to start Thursday’s series finale against the Yankees, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. It’ll be the touted young lefty’s first major league action of the season and just the fourth big league start of his career.
Tolle currently sits 11th on Baseball America’s ranking of the sport’s top-100 prospects. He’s 15th over at MLB.com. The 23-year-old reported to camp this spring in hopes of securing a rotation spot after making a brief MLB debut late last season, but fellow top prospect and left-hander Connelly Early wound up claiming the lone rotation vacancy. Tolle opened the season in Triple-A Worcester, where he’s been excellent. In three starts, he’s totaled 15 innings and held opponents to five earned runs (3.00 ERA) on 12 hits and four walks with 19 strikeouts.
The Sox spent much of the offseason bolstering their pitching depth. While younger arms like Hunter Dobbins and Richard Fitts were sent out in trades, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow also acquired Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo via the trade market and signed longtime Phillies southpaw Ranger Suarez as a free agent.
Just under a month into the season, that depth has already been tested. Oviedo made just one appearance before being diagnosed with a flexor strain and placed on the 60-day injured list. Gray landed on the 15-day IL with a hamstring strain after exiting his most recent start in the middle of the third inning. Left-hander Patrick Sandoval still hasn’t pitched for Boston after signing a two-year, $18.25MM contract two offseasons ago. The Sox knew he’d miss most of 2025 rehabbing from UCL surgery, but he didn’t make it back at all last year and is now dealing with biceps discomfort that popped up during a minor league rehab stint. Righty Kutter Crawford missed the 2025 season due to a knee injury and wrist surgery. He’s also on a rehab stint but also could be facing a setback after experiencing elbow discomfort during a minor league start.
Counting Tanner Houck — who won’t pitch this season after undergoing Tommy John surgery late last August — the Sox have an entire rotation’s worth of arms on the injured list. At the moment, their healthy starting options include Suarez, Early, Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello and, once this move is official, Tolle. Right-hander Tyler Uberstine and lefty Jake Bennett are on the 40-man roster and pitching well in Worcester; Uberstine made his MLB debut earlier this season when he pitched 2 2/3 innings in a long relief appearance. He’s since been optioned back to Triple-A.
All of the injuries could give Tolle some runway to turn this into more than a spot start. There’s no expectation that Gray’s injury will necessitate a long-term absence, but the Sox have yet to put a firm timetable on his recovery, either. Even if it’s just a minimum stint, that’d be enough for Tolle to make multiple starts.
The Red Sox don’t have an off day until April 30, so they won’t have the luxury of skipping this spot in the rotation if they want to send Tolle down and bring up another arm for the ‘pen. However, they could still option Tolle and then call up Bennett or Uberstine to take the ball when this spot in the rotation comes up again next Tuesday. Alternatively, if Bello continues to struggle as he has through his first four starts (6.75 ERA, 14.1% strikeout rate, 13% walk rate in 18 2/3 innings), it’s hard not to wonder whether the currently 9-15 Red Sox might consider at least a short-term change. And, as always, the possibility of injuries elsewhere on the staff could create a more lasting opportunity for Tolle.
Tolle, the No. 50 overall draft pick in 2024, impressed in his first big league start last summer, tossing 5 1/3 innings and holding the Pirates to a pair of runs on three hits and two walks with eight punchouts. His next two starts were shaky, however, and the Sox moved him to the ‘pen for the final few weeks of the season. He wound up posting a 6.06 ERA in a small sample of 16 1/3 innings, but Tolle’s upper-90s four-seamer and 90 mph cutter were on full display. He fanned more than one quarter of his opponents and notched a huge 14.8% swinging-strike rate. This year in Triple-A, he’s added a two-seamer and upped the usage rates on both his curveball and changeup, giving him a more well-rounded arsenal.
Fire Pete Fatse.
Is this the start to your online petition?
Yes please. Cora and Kyle Hudson too. K thanks.
& SFLarry dear god
Sean – Hudson should have been fired in the offseason. Bad reads are Hudson’s calling card. Cora is running out of time, too.
Putting Weissert in tonight over Whitlock in that situation is a fireable offense. Cora needs to f’n gtfoh. Seriously.
Sean – agreed. This team has limited pop, but insist on swinging from their heels. Does Fatse watch these games? Trevor Story, for the love of god, stop trying to pull the outside pitch. Murakami signed in Chicago for two years & $34 million – I digress. This team is totally lost. Fatse, Hudson, Cora – it’s time.
Hudson should’ve been gone two years ago
Who ya calling fatso
Is Payton Tolle, David Wells ghost? Lmk
Don’t stop there…
Nacho Libre To the rescue!!! And boy do ‘WE’ need it!! Can he hit also????
olm – How do you keep getting first comment? You’re faster than a Rafaela strikeout!
Single digit days to go!!!
last night the red sox leadoff man had a career obp of .278 and the DH had a career slg of .348
this is not the red sox i’m used to rooting against. what the hell happened?
dasit – That same guy is batting 2nd tonight, it’s insane.
Duran and Contreras should be 1-2 every single day, period.
Schlittler vs Tolle is a fun matchup of youngsters.
Going to illustrate how much the Red Sox prospects are overrated!
Doug – Or how crappy Cora and his coaching staff are.
Fever- It looks like Tolle was pretty solid. We don’t have many pitchers that are going to strikeout 11 in 6 innings. As has been the case most of the year our offense was terrible. There is definitely something off with this team. They have enough talent that they should not look this bad.
Tolle is good.
More like Schlittler vs. the Red Sox anemic offense & Tolle vs. the Yankees’ 1st place offense.
With the 300 million dollar
payroll they have to spend on players year after year, they sure as +*#! better be in 1st place….. except they under achieve, often.
Last 20 years: 2 WS appearance 1 win
Simon – Yankee offense is literally just 5 guys, everyone else sucks.
Loved how Boone replaced Rice with a .609 OPS hitter last night, do it again Boonie!
The Houck information isn’t correct at this time (unless MLBTR has new information to share). He’s still aiming for a September return and has been throwing for over 2 months already.
He had the TJ surgery August 18th of 2025 – it’s semantics, but generally most wouldn’t consider that ‘late’ last August.
On a seperate note: Uberstine was placed on the MiLB IL on the 16th with shoulder soreness. He could be eligible to come off and pitch as soon as tomorrow, but that seems like a longshot.
Gee, do you really think anyone’s surprised? Maybe we should ask Breslow?
Hey BadCo, when you speak to Bres ask him how that Sandoval contract is doing?
The number one, most important hallmark of this team is to give the appearance of spending money without actually spending money wisely. Yes, the payroll is up…..but you signed Sandoval, IKF, and felt some sort of need to bail out Chaim to the tune of almost $50M, because they were not the type of talent upgrades that would’ve require multiple year contracts.
Sad – The number two most important hallmark is appearing to increase the spending of money when you’re actually reducing spending.
I proved that out a month ago when I added up this year’s payroll acquisitions and subtracted the players from last year’s OD who are no longer here. The subtracted player salaries are higher than the added player salaries.
As for CBT payroll, it’s misleading because of the backloaded contracts. Red Sox tend to trade players before their contracts get pricier.
He is going to have give up no runs cause they can’t score any.
He looks 43, but he has great stuff.
weird
I agree. It’s weird he looks 43.
If we’re talking looks, he could easily be the younger brother of Nick Offerman.
He looks like Babe Ruth with a mustache to me. Hope John Henry isn’t bankrolling any Broadway plays in the next few years.
Amazed they didn’t bring back Giolito, based on the state of their rotation.
A lot of teams kicked the tires on that one and my guess is teams shied away from him when he had that forearm issue late last year. Velocity drop and sharpness during his tryouts are all possibilities.
The Sox expected rotation depth is surely being tested.. Management expected to much from to many young players like Durbin, Anthony, Early,e t.,and maybe now Tolle. The pitching guys they traded for Gray, Oviedo,and Suarez are hurt or not productive. If Crochet cannot return to his Cy Young form this will be a long season. A season that I will admit to having post season thoughts. I didn’t see the offense being this bad ,, especially at home..
Good ramble you typing this while working on a chain…gang?
They don’t let you have cell phones on chain gangs or highway litter patrol. Source: Trust Me
“You have a friend”
Peyton’s a big guy
The bigger the cushion
I’m guessing Bello is pushed to either Friday or Saturday in Baltimore. I can see the Sox possibly signing the recently released Taijuan Walker to a minor league deal just to add more depth. Hopefully Tolle can salvage one game in the series and make the homestand less disastrous
At this point, just let Tolle bat for himself. That team is a total embarrassment at the plate. Funny, but Caleb Durbin is actually tied for the club lead in doubles (5).
At this point let the bat boy give it a try. This offense is looking hopeless.
This is really setting him up for success, isnt it?!?!?!?!
“Oh hey, Payton, can you run out there in the middle of losing 4 out of 5, the fans are a little restless, pitch deep into the game because the bullpen is overtaxed (and maybe not too good), and by the way we’re playing the Yankees, no pressure, thanks! and win….”
Unfortunately this is where we’re at.
If he weee Walter maybe. Could see Sweetness running for daylight once he got into that New York backfield
No matter what happens there will still be tomorrow and it will still be April. Might as well wear that life jacket every day if you’re going to jump this soon.
Hayzee, nicely put… some see a iceberg.. I see unlimited ice for my drinks….
Olmt wins the internet this hour
Whyhayzee – lets say you need 90 wins for a wild card. There’s 138 games to go. So, the rest of the way 81 wins and only 57 losses…..is this a 20 games over .500 team?
Not impossible, but, its getting late early………
I know, I know. And believe me, I’m not happy. But if you’re going to suck, suck early. Let’s hope for better days ahead.
hayzee – Strongly disagree. I’d rather they play well enough to stay in the chase until September, at least I get 5 months of enjoyment out of it.
It’s no fun watching games that are meaningless to your team.
FPG
I have been a big supporter of Bello, for a long time. I know some of the outlying numbers from last year were not as impressive as in previous seasons. But he had a fine stretch 6+ innings and low earned runs. I thought he could become the pitcher you could rely on to give you the quality start consistently. After last nights dreadful performance , I don’t think you can even keep him in the rotation much longer . One more start , that’s it. So disappointing.. he was non- competitive. I turn the game on a little late and it’s already 0-4 . 8 games back of 1st , worst record in the AL. How long can this continue?? Something has got to give.
cdc – hi!
I feel you on Bello. After last season I became a big supporter of his, I was convinced he would have a similar or better season this year. Unfortunately his issues (mind-related more than anything) have returned.
I do believe he could eventually get moved to the BP, or possibly even the minors if he continues to pitch so poorly. But I do not think it would happen until Gray returns.
It’s so disappointing, he looked so good in the WBC and in his final ST start. I was wondering why he didn’t make his regular season debut until the 5th game of the season, now I know why. Something is up with him.
FPG
I think you’re right with his mental makeup. Like he thought why am I the 5th starter on this team … . Instead of going out there and pitching like a #2 and proving the manager wrong,he went out there and pitched poorly. One good start and 4 dreadful ones. How much longer can we stick with this guy???? He is probably the biggest disappointment on the Sox this year, among many. He is a drain on the bullpen in 80% of his starts . That cannot continue. Wow.this is not what I want to be discussing.. let’s go Crochet!!!
FPG
Just looking at our lineup today, it sucks.. No Bregman,no Devers ,no Alonso,no Bichette,no Suarez,no power . Monasterio at DH ??? This order stinks !!¡. No wonder we can’t score any runs .. damn ,,I’m pissed. This is crap….
cdc – hi!
Biggest disappointment would have to be Crochet, nobody imagined he’d have a 7.88 ERA today. But yes there have been many players who have been disappointing, for various reasons.
Cora said Gray should be back May 6, so Bello would have 2 more starts unless Cora decides to have a bullpen game.
Sox winning 2-0 as Durbin, IKF and Mona all get hits off a LHP …. wow!!! My 4-2 road trip is still in play ;o)
cdc – hi!
Yes it does suck, but fortunately Rogers sucked more …. just like I said the other day, I like our pitching matchups. Bradish tomorrow may be the toughest SP they will face.
Tuesday & Wednesday should be cake ;O)
2 doubles for Monasterio… Who knew????
cdc – hi!
Mona hit well vs LHP last year, but I think it’s more a case of Baltimore’s pitching being bad as usual.
Geez I remember the days when Baltimore used to have 4 aces in their rotation.
Guys, I’m glad we’re finally winning, and I had a sneaky suspicion that some warmer weather may be beneficial for Crochet.
But, I find it hard to get excited about scoring runs with this lineup because its a replacement lineup, sometimes in baseball this happens. However, if we’re saying that IKF, Monasterio and Wong are the answers to our problems, we’re in big trouble.
Also, Duran is finally showing signs, getting hits, running the bases…..today batting 7th!?!?!?!
FPG- I really thought there were such signs of growth in Bello last year (especially after the RD trade) that this year he was going to take a very big step forward.
I do tend to agree with you and caching, I think his biggest problems are mental, although, I’m not sure he loves playing for Cora/Bailey either. I know its only a hunch (based on things I saw in The Clubhouse series) but he certainly was rallied by Cora’s mound visit last night, was he?
Sad – I agree. I have no illusions based on today. When Monasterio doubled, followed by Durbin’s double, followed by Wong’s walk, I fully expected IKF and Rafaela to follow with hits and Contreras to walk. Rogers had completely lost it. Beating up on a pitcher who has nothing is not indicative of anything except the pitcher sucking. What hitters do against decent pitchers is what matters.
Don’t even get me started on the lineup! LOL! Rafaela had been 0-for-12 coming into the game, pure lunacy to put him at leadoff.
I expect more of the same Tuesday & Wednesday.
Sad – Yeah remember in 2024 he was separated from his wife and kid, that had to be hard. They joined him last year. Who knows if something is going on in his personal life this year.
Top 15 prospect, like Kristian Campbell, Marcello Mayer, and Roman Anthony last year. You know who NEVER made the Top 100 prospects list? Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice!
yes lets write off the red sox recently graduated prospects after less than one season. While we’re comparing players Wyler Abreu wasn’t a top 100 prospect and he seems to be doing well so far.
But but Gammons
Breslow needs to go. He didn’t sign the power bats we needed. Schwaber should have been signed and don’t tell me you can’t outbid the Phillies. The post season was proof the sox don’t have enough offense and Breslow did nothing to fix it. I wasn’t a fan of his rotation upgrades either. Ocevido and Gray, give me a break. How about a true top of the rotation guy to go with Crochet? Suarez isn’t that guy either. Breslow is not up to the task, but then again he only got it because nobody else wanted it. Also fire Coral and promote Varitek
soxfan – They could easily have gotten Schwarber or maybe even Alonso (who will be fine) but Henry is cheap and Breslow is his puppet. Hard to believe this is the same owner who spent freely under Epstein and Dombrowski. You telling me he lost tons of money in that era?
Alexander Isak. Thats where the moolah went
“Ocevido and Gray, give me a break” should be a t-shirt. Make moolah Hocking these on Lansdowne
Lolol. When you make the shirt do you fix the typo? Or leave Oviedo as Ocevido? I say leave it. The error is reflective of all involved… Hahaha
Agree but not Varitek. He is part of the problem.
One thing about us sox fans we are always B%tching about something.. its baseball its not life or death
Rivera up, Rivera down.
Tolle dominates and the bullpen coughs it up. It’s hard to watch pitchers who just can’t execute and wind up giving away their advantage over the hitters. But where else do you go? Whitlock for two innings and then Chapman? All of these guys need to be ON when they’re protecting the lead.
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy……………………..
Olm – Temper is the one thing you can’t get rid of by losing.
FPG
Loved the emotion Tolle showed after punching out the last hitter he faced. The kid gave us a great chance to win . Unfortunately our taxed pen could not come through. Tolle’s outing was probably the high point of the season so far. Maybe Bello will be inspired tonight. Or how bout the offense …. Like putting a couple of hits back to back…..
cdc – hi!
Yes Tolle is always like that, good to see. I agree the best highlight of the season thus far.
Weissert was so good his prior 5 outings.
Duran is back! Last 2 games he is 4-for-8 with 2 doubles, 2 singles, an RBI and a spectacular catch last night.
Here is something that will cheer you up:
Red Sox are just ONE win behind the Jays, and just three behind the O’s.
I like the pitching matchups, I think Sox win at least 4 of 6 on this trip.
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
I’m not going to blame the players although there is plenty of blame to go around. The players seem to have a large number underachieving together at the same time. The entire upper administration needs to go immediately. If you flipped a coin, you would be right 50% of the time. These guys are wrong 90% of the time. Cora, Breslow, and Kennedy all need to go-NOW. IF THINGS CONTINUE THIS WAY For ANOTHER 2 weeks the season will be effectively over. Between them they have screwed up roster building, staffing, bullpen usage, lineups, trades, free agent signings, and nearly everything else they can put their hands on. Blow it up! Way too much money being spent to accept these results. Put Durban and Story on the IL for 10 days! Bring up Franklin Arias while he is hot. Bring up Gasper and give him another shot at 2nd base. Slide Mayer back over to third. You can’t make me believe the production could be any worse that what it is currently. And while Abreu has value, trade him for the best bullpen arm you can get, the guy is just too streaky! That should breakup the outfield logjam. I’m an old man! And tired of having to wait until next year every year!
spitball: “I’m not going to blame the players although there is plenty of blame to go around.”
===========≈==
I put most of the blame on the players. They are the ones failing to get the job done on the field. Coaches don’t swing a bat or throw a pitch. These are professional athletes.
All- I think coaches have more of an impact than you give them credit for. Management has put together this group of players through trade, free agency, and the draft. The players are expected to be physically ready through proper conditioning and put in the time with the coaching staff to be sure they are best prepared for every scenario. If someone is healthy and has been successful in the past, the coaches should put them in the best situation to repeat that success. When the entire offense is having an off year, it is bigger than just the players not performing/putting in the needed effort to succeed.
The manager and coaches have considerable influence in how and when the players swing. Should they be focused on hitting the ball as hard as they can, just trying to get on base, or taking as many pitches as possible to make the opposing pitcher waste pitches. This is not to say the players are not to blame at all, but why are so many of them performing below their previous standards.
Something is definitely off this year and the biggest difference as far as clubhouse chemistry and leadership is Bregman being gone. Could be a coincidence, but this is a talented enough team that they should not be playing this bad. There has not been much consistency in who is in the lineup or the batting order, which doesn’t help. Maybe that is because they kept too many outfielders, but that was the decision by management and potentially the coaches. You can’t blame the players for that. Without some consistency it is not surprising they are not performing their best. Not to say that is the main problem.
There were better players out there in both trade and free agency. They would have had to give up more and likely overspend. Would it have made a difference? Who knows? At the moment they don’t look like a very competitive team and most of the players they brought in this year have not impressed. I really thought the new players would be better than they have been, even though they were not the players at the top of my list. They can definitely turn things around and I hope they do in time. I do think they have much more potential than what we have seen.
Uncle: I agree coaches have some responsibility, but past success by players doesn’t guarantee future success. I’m not sure any coach could help Bello right now. Maybe the players have tuned out Cora and the coaches. Maybe the players are trying to get Cora fired. Maybe there is a divided clubhouse. Or maybe this is just baseball being baseball where the unexpected happens.
I’ve HATED Breslow for about for about 16 months now, and barely tolerated Cora for about 20 months. Glad the rest of you are catching up.
I will wait until after today’s (Friday in Baltimore) game. If they dont win 11-3 or have a team fight or something that shows any life then I will give up.
I dont think Cora has it in him to inspire anyone on this team. How could he? He doesnt show respect to any of the players, he never lets them battle, platoons the existence out of everyone and these lineups that he throws out there the past week are a caricature of what a manager should do….
The Brewers certainly knew they were selling high on Durbin, and the fact that Monasterio has STARTED(!) games batting second is an absolute joke. Four starting players batting under .200.
Bailed out Chaim for $55m!!! But traded away Harrison! IKF for $6m, when Rosario or Rengifo both signed for under $2m.
This front office is incompetent, and dont tell me about Henry’s financial restraints, these are simply BAD CHOICES.
Please guys, I’m begging you to show the fans a little fight tonight, anything at all to show us that you want us to hang in there
Go Sox (please)
Sad – I was thinking back, for most of the past 6 years I’ve been saying Bloom & Breslow were not doing a good job. There are certain people who praised Bloom from the day he arrived until the day he left, and they have been praising Breslow since the day he arrived. How do they live with themselves? They have to know deep down this has been one of the worst run organizations since Dave left …. right? They can’t be THAT ignorant, can they?
Players don’t respect Cora because he is all about being their BFF instead of their manager. He is way, way too soft on them and his awful communication skills, constant lineup and position shuffling, and failure to think things through drives the players crazy.
The numbers for Durbin were there for all to see. Overall he had mediocre stats, but his Road numbers were horrendous & his Infield Fly numbers were horrendous & his Hard Hit Rate was horrendous & his Exit Velo was horrendous. Apparently Cora, Fatso and Driveline thought they could “fix him”. But just like IKF the $6M man, Durbin is great with the glove and that’s what the tunnel-visioned Breslow zeroed in on and valued the most.
That said, I expect the Sox to win at least 4 of 6 on this trip. The Jays & O’s are really hurting from injuries, and the pitching matchups favor the Sox.
So don’t give up, Sox are only ONE WIN behind Toronto and only THREE WINS behind the O’s!
FPG- valiant effort to put a positive face on this. Breslow is simply awful, and the time has come for Cora because (however anyone feels about him), the players have tuned him out, therefore its over. I only a true blowout tonight and 4 of 6 on this trip changes tgat, but im not holding my breath.
Its not the three games back that worries me….its the fact that to make the playoffs this team would need to play about +/- 15 games over.500 the rest of the way.
If Crochet was dominate I would say, “lets go”, but I see ‘very good’ but may not dominate the rest of the way, and thats without missing any time or starts.
Sad: Today you are complaining that Cora “never let’s his players battle”. Yesterday you were complaining that Cora was being too hard on Tolle for starting him against the Yankees when they are on a losing streak.
I didnt blame Cora for the Tolle start, nor was i complaining about it. Cora doesnt recall players from the minors, does he? No, he doesnt.
If you read what I was saying was, the team was not putting him in a great position for his start. And, it wasnt a knock on the kid either. I think as soon as he gets a better secondary outch he can be really good.
What I said was there was a tremendous amount of pressure being put on his shoulders in terms of: stopping the sweep and going deep into a game *when hes not built up enough to do that.
Sorry, but your counterarguement doesnt hold up.
A better first game for Tolle would’ve been tonight, on the road with a more rested bullpen is all im saying.
As a matter of fact, the one kid that I would jump in a foxhole with is….. Tolle
Sad: It seemed pretty obvious you were complaining about Tolle being put in difficult circumstances and then complaining that Red Sox players are never allowed to battle….which would be in difficult circumstances.
IKF and Durbin were ridiculous moves when they have Sogard and Eaton who are both better at ML minimum.
Top – None of the 4 are MLB players, but moving Mayer to 3B and Rafaela to 2B would solve so many problems.
Rengifo and Rosario were better offensive bench players for less than half the price…
Tolle looks like Justin in the “Stop and Shop” commercials but the kid can pitch.
The next Transactions RSN wants to see is…
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
FIRE CORA AND THE HITTING COACH IT’S TIME‼️
When “and” begins the sentence, it should not be followed by a comma. Also, there shouldn’t be a comma after “either.”