Boston Red Sox pitchers Connelly Early and Payton Tolle could be potential AL Rookie of the Year Candidates in 2026.
In the wake of Monday’s trade between Boston and the Milwaukee Brewers, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow addressed the status of both Early and Tolle.
“Breslow says Early and Tolle were ‘guys we wanted to hold onto. … We’re a better team with those guys in our system,'” Alex Speier of The Boston Globe posted on Bluesky.
The pair of 23-year-old left-handers have both recently made appearances on various top prospects lists but also made an impact at the end of the 2025 campaign.
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Early went 1-2 with a 2.33 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and 29 strikeouts across 19 1/3 innings pitched (four starts) in the regular season. He then started and lost Boston’s final contest of the year in Game 3 of the AL wild-card series vs. the New York Yankees.
Tolle was 0-1 with a 6.06 ERA, 1.59 WHIP and 19 strikeouts over 16 1/3 innings pitched covering seven games (three starts) in 2025.
Featured image via Mike Watters/Imagn Images
