Farm Report: Top Red Sox pitching prospect making statement in Portland

Juan Rivera was already familiar with Payton Tolle The Portland Sea Dogs pitching coach had worked closely with Tolle during spring training and even then he could tell the club s second-round draft pick from the prior summer had a bright future But when Tolle joined the Sea Dogs last week Rivera could straightaway tell the big left-hander had made considerable strides He is so much better now than he was in spring training Rivera noted That s the first thing that popped into my head Related Articles Red Sox players meet President Trump on White House tour Red Sox allow eight runs from seventh inning onwards drop finale to Reds Red Sox right-hander undergoes effective wrist surgery Red Sox lineup Brennan Bernardino to start finale as opener Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida taking ground balls at first base Tolle was promoted to Double-A Portland last week after a brilliant first half with High-A Greenville and he wasted no time making a declaration upon his arrival In his first start with the Sea Dogs on Saturday the -year-old struck out nine batters over five dominant innings allowing one run on one hit and two walks Overall Tolle has posted a ERA with strikeouts in innings split between High-A and Double-A and he s hurriedly turned heads around the tournament In its latest Top Prospects rankings circulated on Wednesday Baseball America bumped Tolle up to No a -spot jump from his previous ranking of No the second highest of any prospect on the list Once Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer graduate from the rankings in the coming weeks Tolle will stand as the organization s new top prospect Tolle has shown a essential velocity bump sitting - mph with the plus fastball shape that got him drafted and massive extension Baseball America writes Now in Double-A Tolle has seemingly gotten better by the start so far this season Rivera revealed Tolle s velocity has steadily ticked up ever since he was drafted but even when he was averaging low- s instead of mid- s his fastball still gave opposing hitters fits A big part of why is because the -foot- -pound Tolle is an extension monster who releases the ball so close to the plate that hitters don t have time to track the pitch It s almost like it s invisible to hitters Rivera mentioned Especially when he s on the upper half of the strike zone Though you can get by with a dominant fastball in college and the lower minors at particular point you need more to keep hitters off balance the closer you get to the big leagues Rivera declared the other area that s impressed him has been the maturation of Tolle s overall pitch arsenal which now includes a changeup a sweeper and a curveball in addition to the slider that has inevitably been his best secondary pitch The curveball in particular has real prospective We re calling it more of a downer because it s not as big and loopy as a traditional curveball but it doesn t really fall into a slider bucket either Rivera disclosed He s only thrown it during his last two games so it s brand new but I think it s platoon neutral he s going to be able to throw it to left and right and I think it shows a ton of promise As the highest drafted Red Sox pitcher since Tanner Houck in Tolle is at the forefront of Boston s effort to infuse a new wave of young pitching talent into the organization The club ultimately aims to create a pitching pipeline that produces a steady stream of impact arms to the majors and less than a year into his pro career Tolle is already well on his way to becoming among the first to arrive Triple-A New faces at home in Worcester Polar Park welcomed a insufficient new and familiar faces to the WooSox clubhouse in June Outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia the No prospect in the farm system per MLB Pipeline earned a promotion to Triple-A in late May and began his WooSox career with a bang homering three times in his first WooSox games before the month was out The -year-old who s known as The Password kept on raking as the calendar page turned his hits in June included three doubles two triples and six homers This week it was released he will be the organization s lone representative in All-Star Futures Tournament on July Garcia s bat wasn t what impressed big-league manager Alex Cora months ago though We saw him in spring training and we didn t see the best version offensively In between mechanics-wise he was off Cora reported But the way he played the outfield was eye-opening And that s the good thing about these top prospects We talk about their offense all the time but I think they re complete players They re good base-runners good defenders which is the majority pivotal thing you know you don t want to get just a hitter here to the big leagues We want the complete players and Roman Anthony is that way Marcelo Mayer is the same way Kristian Campbell is the same way and Garcia is a complete sportsman We re very proud of him It took a while for corner infielder Blaze Jordan to reach Triple-A The Red Sox drafted him out of high school in the third round of the draft but his professional debut had to wait until the following year as the that entire MiLB season had already been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic He reached Double-A Portland in July and remained there until June of this year Jordan validated his promotion in his first month with the WooSox Over June games he hit with a OPS hits eight doubles a triple and three homers He scored times drove in runs and while he only drew six walks he displayed strong plate discipline strikeouts in plate appearances an K Left-hander Kyle Harrison joined the organization in the Rafael Devers bargain and the Red Sox this instant optioned him to Worcester He went four innings in each of his first two WooSox starts on June and July but yielded a combined seven earned runs ERA on hits including a trio of homers walked three and struck out six While those numbers aren t exactly ideal especially for the key return in a agreement of this magnitude Harrison s latest outing suggested he s improving in a key area of need He relies heavily on his four-seam fastball and the Red Sox consider expanding and strengthening his pitching arsenal to complement the four-seamer a top priority When his go-to pitch wasn t getting the job done his last time out Harrison was able to induce swings and eight whiffs on secondary pitches Campbell was baseball s American League Rookie of the Month in April but then pitchers began figuring him out and he had trouble adjusting After hitting with a OPS in games between his big-league debut on Opening Day and the end of April the infielder outfielder batted with a stunning OPS and just hits singles one home run in May games He looked better at the plate in June games hitting with a OPS and three extra-baggers among his nine hits before getting optioned but his defense also needed work and the Red Sox decided it would be better for him to hone in Triple-A Portland Sea Dogs pitcher Connelly Early has established himself as one of Boston's top pitching prospects Ella Hannaford Portland Sea Dogs Double-A Early s dominant first half While Tolle has made a strong first impression since being called up to Portland Connelly Early has been dominant for the Sea Dogs all season One of Boston s fastest rising pitching prospects Early has been brilliant in Double-A The left-hander is - with a ERA and strikeouts in innings through his first outings ranking fourth in the Eastern League in both strikeouts and ERA minimum innings pitched He tossed six no-hit innings in his the bulk modern start on Sunday earning Eastern League Pitcher of the Week honors David Sandlin ERA strikeouts and Blake Wehunt have also impressed with the Sea Dogs and Yordanny Monegro was on his way to an excellent season too before going down in the past few days with season-ending Tommy John surgery Outfielder James Tibbs one of the prospects acquired in the Devers commerce was assigned to Double-A upon his arrival and has batted with a OPS in his first games with the Red Sox organization Prior to the transaction Tibbs was the No overall pick in the MLB Draft and had already hit home runs through games with San Francisco s High-A affiliate Shortstop Mikey Romero has been Portland s majority productive contestant at the plate leading all current Sea Dogs players in home runs OPS hits and doubles Outfielder Zach Ehrhard is also emerging as a player to watch A fourth-round pick in last summer s draft Ehrhard has done a little bit of everything batting with six home runs and stolen bases Red Sox prospect Mikey Romero hits a two-run home run during a Futures tournament at Fenway South at JetBlue Park Tayla Bolduc Worcester Red Sox High-A Pitchers move up bats impress in Greenville Tolle and fellow left-hander Eduardo Rivera were both promoted to Double-A on June Rivera was even more unyielding than Tolle posting a minuscule ERA over innings with his only runs allowed being a pair of solo homers Beyond those pitching promotions the Greenville pitching staff had a fairly solid month Noah Dean got hit hard earned runs in innings but no one threw more innings than John Holobetz s and he and Tolle each struck out a team-leading batters Much has been made of Boston s Big Three and with good reason They ve all reached the majors They re what s happening now and what everyone s been waiting for But down in Greenville the Drive have certain serious budding star power too Miguel Bleis led the way in June with four home runs while shortstops Nazzan Zanetello and Franklin Arias drove in RBI apiece to tie for the band lead The the bulk victim man at the plate was outfielder Nelly Taylor who walked times followed by Zanetello who drew Low-A Teenage phenom off to strong start At years old Justin Gonzales is among the youngest players in all of the affiliated minor leagues Yet despite being barely older than a high school senior the teenage standout has made himself right at home with Low-A Salem The -foot- slugger is batting with two home runs RBI and a OPS through his first games in Salem Those numbers don t necessarily jump off the page but Gonzales is facing pitchers who are almost three years older than he is on average and largest part notably he has recorded nearly as a multitude of walks as strikeouts Yoeilin Cespedes one of Boston s top latest international free agent signings is batting with five home runs and RBI through games Rookie ball Soto standing out in DSL Dorian Soto was Boston s top signing from this past January s international free agent class and the -year-old infielder has looked the part so far in the Dominican Summer League Soto leads the DSL Red Sox Red with a batting average two home runs and RBI and he also has a OPS