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The Boston Red Sox have two of the brightest young hurlers in baseball in their starting rotation right now.
Payton Tolle and Connelly Early both look like potential long-term fixtures for this club today. When Spring Training kicked off, it wasn't clear if either would be in the big league rotation this early in the season. In fact, the most likely option throughout most of camp was that neither would be on the big league roster. Early changed the narrative, though, and won a job out of camp. Tolle made his way to the majors shortly afterward due to injuries. Both are now in the rotation and thriving.
Early has a 2.95 ERA in 11 starts so far this season. Tolle has a 2.61 ERA in seven starts so far this season for Boston. Both are stars in the making, but they arguably were snubbed by Bleacher Report on Monday. Bleacher Report's Zachary Rymer shared a column in which he picked the top hurlers in baseball who are 25 years old and under. Both Early and Tolle landed in the "honorable mentions" category.
"Early has a 2.80 ERA after 15 major league starts, which goes to show how successful he's been at bamboozling hitters with his six-pitch mix," Rymer wrote. "He's probably been a little too effective at preventing runs, given that he actually gets hit pretty hard and has mostly avoided damage via an 88.3 strand percentage this year. At worst, though, he looks like an effective mid-rotation starter. ...
"Tolle has a 2.61 ERA through seven starts this season, and his peripherals include a WHIP under 1.0 and a 4.2 strikeout-to-walk ratio. It's a small sample size, but this is ace-caliber stuff. There is also something to be said about the pure entertainment value of Tolle as a presence on the mound. He's a big, excitable dude whose approach to pitching is to go "Here it is, hit it" with his mid-to-high 90s heat. It's pretty great, honestly."
There were eight players on the list not in the "honorable mentions" category, including Taj Bradley, who has a 4.65 ERA in 85 big league appearances. Kyle Harrison has been incredible this season and landed at No. 6, but is his upside higher than Early and Tolle? Arguably not.