Red Sox pitching prospects Payton Tolle and Brandon Clarke getting recognized for early success
When Baseball America unveiled the May revision of its top 100 prospect rankings, the reveal came with an intriguing wrinkle for the Red Sox.
Yes, Roman Anthony (No. 1 overall), Kristian Campbell (No. 3), and Marcelo Mayer (No. 9) landed in the top 10. (Campbell has since lost eligibility based on plate appearances.) That was impressive but hardly a surprise — all three are well-established.
But the bottom of the list featured a novelty. Two Red Sox lefthanded pitchers, Payton Tolle and Brandon Clarke, sneaked in, with Tolle No. 94 and Clarke No. 96.
It marked the first time since the 2015-16 offseason that the Sox had two pitchers in the publication’s top 100 at the same time. It’s been a long time since the Red Sox could claim to have two elite pitching prospects.
Yet the development is even more eye-opening when considering that neither Tolle (14⅓ innings) nor Clarke (14⅔ innings) had thrown 15 professional innings at the time they cracked the list.
Both are 22. Both were drafted last year, spent the remainder of 2024 and the start of 2025 training in Fort Myers, Fla., then emerged as noticeably improved compared with who they were entering the draft. The Sox are hopeful Tolle and Clarke represent a signal of more rapidly improving pitchers to come.
“We’re very optimistic with where our pitching group is not just going but where we’re at right now,” said assistant general manager Paul Toboni. “Without a doubt they are better versions of who they were a year, year and a half ago.
“Both of them, you put a goal out in front of them, and just the people they are, they freaking go and get it. That’s been really fun. In a short window of time, they’ve seen us kind of painting the vision for them, and then they’re really buying in.”
Payton Tolle delivers 12 strikeouts across five scoreless innings for the High-A
@GreenvilleDrive
The
@RedSox 2024 second rounder over his past three starts:
13 IP | 7 H | 1 R | 2 BB | 26 K
pic.twitter.com/NoIi8WC6Mo
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline)
May 4, 2025
The Sox identified special attributes in both pitchers when drafting them. At TCU, Tolle (3.66 ERA, 41 percent strikeout rate in High A Greenville) possessed elite extension on his pitches (he releases the ball 7.4 feet in front of the rubber) and a low release point that confounded hitters on fastballs. Clarke could reach the upper-90s with his fastball while pitching in junior college.
The Sox identified not only nice foundational pieces but areas of potential growth when taking Tolle in the second round and Clarke in the fifth.
“I think it points to the relationship between our amateur acquisition group and our development group, understanding what we can develop, what we can improve upon in players,” said farm director Brian Abraham.
The Sox put both players on velocity programs as part of their strength and conditioning, nutrition, and high-performance training starting last summer. Both have made considerable progress in a short time.
Tolle has added velocity since college and is now sitting at 93-94 miles per hour and topping out at 98. That velocity, in tandem with his extraordinary extension, has contributed to a 49 percent whiff rate on fastballs. He’s also throwing a hard slider, changeup, and occasional sweeper.
“Sky’s the limit,” said Toboni.
