Red Sox Fans Will Love Connelly Early, Payton Tolle Updates

The Boston Red Sox have two of baseball's most intriguing pitching prospects.

Sep 16, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Connelly Early (71) delivers a pitch during the first inning against the Athletics at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images | Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images

If you’re a Boston Red Sox fan, you should be excited about the team’s addition of Caleb Durbin for multiple reasons.

First and foremost, Durbin is a gamer. He’s just 25 years old and was a 2.8-WAR player as a rookie in 2025 for the Milwaukee Brewers. Durbin played in 136 games and slashed .256/.334/.387 with 11 homers, 53 RBIs, 18 stolen bases, 25 doubles and 60 runs scored. That'll play at Fenway Park.

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But that’s not all. With the deal, that seemingly would take the club out of any other game-changing deals this offseason. The Red Sox arguably have solved all of their biggest needs without trading away any of the team’s outfielders or Connelly Early or Payton Tolle.

The Red Sox made the right move

Sep 24, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Payton Tolle (70) delivers a pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays in the ninth inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images | Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

When it comes to the young starters, this is arguably for the best. All offseason, Early and Tolle have had their names thrown around as trade candidates when it came to guys like Ketel Marte or Nico Hoerner. Instead, Boston solved the infield question mark without having to give up years of team control over two different starters who very well could be at least mid-rotation guys for the organization. Early is just 23 years old and already has started a playoff game. Tolle is 23 years old and is the team's No. 2 overall prospect.

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow acknowledged that Tolle and Early are guys the team wants to hold onto on Monday, while discussing the Durbin deal, as shared by The Boston Globe's Alex Speier.

"Breslow says Early and Tolle were 'Guys we wanted to hold onto. ... We're a better team with those guys in our system,'" Speier shared.

The Red Sox are loaded with pitching depth right now to the point that Sean McAdam of MassLive.com noted that the current expectation is that Early and Tolle will kick off the season down in Triple-A.

"Indeed, with a rotation of Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray, Ranger Suarez, Brayan Bello and Johan Oviedo, the Sox still have Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval now healthy in reserve — to say nothing of top prospects Payton Tolle and Connelly Early, both whom are likely to begin the season at Triple A Worcester in order to continue their development," McAdam wrote.

Even though they aren't likely to be in Boston to kick off the 2026 season, keeping these two in town for years to come as the price of pitching only increases is a huge win for the organization. It doesn't sound like they are going anywhere any time soon, which should excite the fanbase.

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