Skyrocketing Red Sox Prospect Replaces Tanner Houck, Dominates Yet Again
The Boston Red Sox might’ve struck gold in the second round of the 2024 MLB Draft.
On Friday night, left-hander Payton Tolle replaced a rehabbing Tanner Houck (who we’ll get to in a moment) and dominated yet again in his second appearance for Double-A Portland. The hard-throwing pitching prospect gave up two hits and one run while striking out eight in four impressive innings.
Tolle, who’s embarrassed batters throughout his first full professional season, induced 14 whiffs while throwing 70% of his pitches for strikes.
Featuring an overwhelming fastball and freakish extension, Tolle has skyrocketed up national and local prospect rankings this season. He currently sits fifth on SoxPropsects.com‘s rankings and 49th on Baseball America’s.
Tolle posted a 3.62 ERA and 14.3 strikeouts per nine innings across 11 appearances (10 starts) for Single-A Greenville before his promotion to Portland, where he’s struck out 17 batters in just nine innings.
However, Tolle must improve his secondary pitches before he can be considered a true blue-chip starting pitching prospect rather than a future leverage reliever. Nevertheless, he’s a prospect worth getting excited about.
Friday’s game in Portland was newsworthy on multiple fronts.
Houck, who’d struggled mightily since beginning his rehab assignment last month, threw five scoreless innings and struck out four while picking up a victory. As of this writing, the Red Sox hadn’t announced their plans for Houck’s next outing.
On the offensive side, shortstop Mikey Romero (ranked 10th by SoxProspects) went 2-for-5 while hitting his eighth homer of the season. Masataka Yoshida, rehabbing a shoulder injury, went 1-for-4.