Payton Tolle is a 6-6, 250-pound starting pitcher from Bethany, Oklahoma who was selected by the Red Sox with the 50th pick in the draft. He was named the Big XII Pitcher of the Year in 2024 after posting a 3.21 ERA and striking out 125 batters in 81.1 innings for TCU. Bethany previously produced Allie Reynolds, a six-time All-Star and two-time no-hitter pitcher. Tolle was a two-way player at Wichita State, hitting .311/.361/.538 with 13 homers in 2023. Baseball America ranks him the 40th prospect. Scouting reports note his fastball has reached 98 mph and he averages over seven feet of extension.
The Sox hadn't used such a high pick on a pitcher since Tanner Houck in 2017, after years of the Chaim Bloom-led front office pursing a deliberate strategy of swerving pitchers in the early rounds of the draft. It isn't hard to see why Craig Breslow and company liked Tolle so much. Tolle was named the Big XII Pitcher of the Year in 2024, after he put up a 3.21 ERA for TCU, striking out 125 batters in 81.1 innings pitched.
While Tolle would certainly love to become the best pitcher ever to come out of Bethany, Oklahoma, that will actually be a tall ask. That's because Bethany was also the hometown of Allie Reynolds, who made six All-Star appearances with Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees, threw two no-hitters, and led the league in strikeouts twice and ERA once before becoming a successful oil man and an early leader in the labor fight for players' rights.
Jake Roy, who knows a lot more about this stuff than anyone else who covers the Red Sox, raves about his fastball: When the Red Sox drafted Tolle, his fastball sat about 91 mph. At times this season, he's sat 95 mph and maxed out at 98 mph. He also uses his huge frame to stride down the mound, averaging over seven feet of extension. On one recent pitch, he released the ball 7'10" down
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