Craig Breslow Provides Update On Red Sox's 23-Year-Old Fireballer

The Boston Red Sox should have an intense competition for spots in the starting rotation once spring training arrives.

Injuries slowed the progress of several Red Sox starters last year, making decisions less difficult. But even if a couple of guys get hurt this time around, Boston has more notable names in the mix than ever before, and it will be intriguing to see how top prospect Payton Tolle is handled during that competition.

Tolle became Boston's consensus No. 1 prospect by blitzing his way through the minors this year, debuting in High-A in April and in the majors in August. But he's far from guaranteed to earn a spot in the rotation, considering his struggles in a 16 1/3-inning sample size, the emergence of fellow rookie Connelly Early, and the arrivals of Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo via trade.

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What Craig Breslow said about Tolle's offseason, shot at a rotation spot

Red Sox chief baseball officer recently provided an update on Tolle's offseason plan and progress, as the 23-year-old looks to establish himself as a piece of the rotation puzzle sooner rather than later.

“This offseason will be essential for him developmentally,” Breslow told MLB.com's Ian Browne. “There is no secret he put on quite a bit of velocity last offseason, and there will be a focus this offseason on developing some of those secondaries. So, we’ll see what that looks like when we get to Spring Training.”

As for where Tolle stood in the competition, Breslow put the onus on the young flamethrower to win a job when camp opens in Fort Myers in February.

“We have been monitoring his work pretty closely, but there is nothing like stress-testing this in games against hitters,” Breslow told Browne. “I think ultimately with a bunch of these young pitchers it’s going to be the case of when they get to Spring Training, performance is going to dictate where they end up.”

No one doubts that Tolle will be an impact arm for the Red Sox in the long haul. But what path he takes to get there could dictate the futures of many other pitchers on the staff, while also obviously impacting Boston's push for a division title.

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