Left-handed pitcher Payton Tolle, who the Red Sox selected in the second round (50th overall) out of TCU on Sunday, has been up to 96 mph with his fastball. He also mixes in four other pitches.
“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. “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.”
The 6-foot-6, 250-pounder went 7-4 with a 3.21 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 125 strikeouts and 37 walks in 14 starts (81 ⅓ innings) after transferring to TCU as a junior in 2024. He spent both his freshman and sophomore years at Wichita State.
Tolle, who will turn 22 in November, was a two-way player throughout college but Pearson said he will be developed solely as a pitcher.
“He’s typically 90 to 96 (mph with the fastball),” Pearson said. “He’s got a slider, cutter, changeup, curveball. A bunch of different weapons that we can work with and get to their best shapes.”
Tolle had a terrific 37.1% strikeout percentage this season.
He averaged 13.8 strikeouts and 4.1 walks per nine innings as a junior. He averaged 10.5 strikeouts and 3.0 walks per nine innings in 42 outings (40 starts) in college.
“I can’t say enough good things about Payton,” Pearson said. “As a pitcher, he’s really talented and he has elite traits that we’re ready to work with. But even more so as a person — getting to interact with him at the combine, just felt like somebody that could come into our organization, our training environments and improve and work his tail off to be the best version of himself. And we’re just thrilled to have him.”
Baseball America ranked him the draft’s No. 82 prospect while MLB Pipeline had him No. 87 in its rankings.
His MLB Pipeline scouting report has his fastball graded 55 on the 20-80 grading scale. It has his slider graded 50, his changeup graded 40 and his control graded 50. According to the report, “Tolle uses his 6-foot-6 frame to create more extension (an average of 7 feet, 4 inches) in his delivery than most pitchers in this Draft. That enables his 90-92 mph fastball to play much better than its below-average velocity, and he shows the ability to run it in on lefties or bore it in on righties. His heater tops out at 96 and he uses it nearly three-quarters of the time, complementing it with an average sweeping slider that hovers around 80 mph.
“Tolle barely employs his low-80s changeup with mild fade. 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.”
