When asked about pitching depth for the remainder of the season, Red Sox chief baseball officer offered two unexpected names:
Right-hander David Sandlin and left-hander Connelly Early, whom the organization promoted to Triple-A Worcester together just last week.
“A couple of guys, in Sandlin and Early,” Breslow said Sunday morning. “I think the idea is to try and amass as much depth as we can, especially near-major league ready depth, because we know at this point it’s a lot harder to transact and act.”
MLB Pipeline lists Sandlin and Early as the organization’s No. 11 and No. 5 prospects, respectively.
Breslow also named Richard Fitts, Cooper Criswell, and Kyle Harrison as options. All three have big-league experience and have pitched in the majors this season. Harrison was minutes away from starting for the San Francisco Giants when the Red Sox acquired him in the Rafael Devers trade back in June.
Sandlin and Early would also be candidates to debut in a relief role.
“I think we’re at the point where any opportunity we have to bolster the team and give us a better chance to win, we’ve got to be open to it, and whether that’s Sandlin, Early, both, neither, I think those are options,” Breslow said. “We’ll take a look at the way that we think their repertoires could potentially play out of the ‘pen. Sandlin is a guy that comes to mind in that it’s really power stuff, and with maybe a simplified approach we feel like he could come in and just kind of overwhelm hitters with the stuff. And those conversations are ongoing.”
That the Red Sox are considering Sandlin and Early shows immense faith in their abilities. The organization typically prefers to see how a prospect handles one level of the farm for a sustained period of time before promoting him to the next.
Thus, it was even more surprising when Breslow added Payton Tolle’s name to the list.
“Payton Tolle’s pitching really well in Double-A,” said Breslow. “We feel like we’ve got options.”
The Red Sox drafted Tolle out of TCU in the second round last summer; taken 50th overall, the lefty is their highest pitching selection since Tanner Houck. Tolle made his professional debut this season and earned a promotion to Double-A Portland by late June. He owns a 2.93 ERA over 17 games (15 starts) between A+ Greenville and Portland, with a 1.67 ERA through six games (five starts) at the latter level. He’s Boston’s No. 3 prospect, and entered MLB’s Top 100 this summer at No. 92.
The Red Sox optioned Harrison to Triple-A immediately following the trade. The Red Sox “have a ton of confidence” in their current pitching staff, but they’re eager to see what the guys on the farm have to offer, too.
“We’d like to get all those guys a look at the major league level, if that’s what the situation warrants,” Breslow said.
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