5 things to know about Red Sox 2nd-round pick Payton Tolle
A few things to know about the latest Red Sox draft pick.
The Red Sox drafted TCU left-handed pitcher Payton Tolle in the second-round of the 2024 MLB First Year Player draft.
Tolle, whom the Red Sox took No. 50 overall, is the reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Year. He spent one season at TCU after transferring from Wichita State.
Baseball America ranked him as the No. 82 prospect in this year’s draft class.
Here are five things to know about Tolle.
He’s a big left-handed pitcher with good fastball movement.
Tolle is listed at 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds. His fastball is generally clocked around 90-92 miles per hour and tops out at 96 according to his MLB.com scouting report.
His fastball (55) and slider (50) were his highest graded pitches on MLB.com’s 20-80 scale.
“The unique traits for him are just the far above-average extension, his strikes, his ability to spin the slider,” Red Sox director of amateur scouting Devin Pearson said, according to MassLive. “He does a lot of things that we can work with and get to his optimal shapes. Mainly it’s extension and how his fastball moves.”
It’s the highest Red Sox draft pick used on a pitcher since 2017.
Tolle’s selection marks the first time the Red Sox took a pitcher with a top-50 pick since Tanner Houck in 2017.
Houck is set to make his first MLB All-Star appearance this week.
The Red Sox took Texas A&M outfielder Braden Montgomery in the first round, and have used most of their Day 1 picks on infielders in recent years.
MLB.com called him a “polarizing prospect.”
According to his MLB.com scouting report, Tolle relies on his fastball about three-quarters of the time while mixing in a slider, changeup, and sweeping curve.
“Tolle barely employs his low-80s changeup with mild fade,” the scouting report said. “He’s a below-average athlete with average control at best, yet college hitters can’t touch his heater. He’s a polarizing prospect whose proponents extol his fastball metrics while others see him as more of a multi-inning reliever than a starter”
He was a two-way player in college.
Tolle hit .311 with 13 home runs and 50 RBI as a sophomore at Wichita State in 2023, playing infielder while also compiling a 9-3 record with a 4.62 ERA on the mound.
He was one considered one of college baseball’s best two way players during his time at Wichita State.
Tolle went 7-4 on the mound last season, and his 3.21 ERA was good for 12th in the Big 12. He also tied for 11th in the nation in strikeouts (125). Tolle made 15 starts at the plate along with 14 at the mound last season, but his batting numbers took a dip in his lone season in the Big 12. He hit .182 with a pair of home runs and 13 RBI.
The Red Sox are planning to develop him solely as a pitcher.
He’s the only player to win these two Big 12 awards in same year.
Tolle is the only player in conference history to win both the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and big 12 Newcomer of the Year award in the same season.
He was dominant in his only season at TCU. The Horned Frogs went 33-21 and lost in to Kansas in the Big 12 title game. Tolle’s only start in the Big 12 Tournament was a 4-0 loss to Oklahoma in which Tolle gave up four runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings.
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