The Boston Red Sox have recently called up Kyle Harrison from AAA Worcester. This means the Red Sox can do either a 6-man rotation, giving Payton Tolle some time off (given that he hasn't pitched more than 90 pitches in a game yet this year), and there's yet a decision to be made with Dustin May and if he's staying in the rotation.
But the problem is, he won't be starting on Thursday. Brennan Bernardino will be starting again for the second time in six nights after it was reported that Harrison has a sore ankle. He does have a 1.17 ERA in the 11 games he's started for the team (granted, he only pitches an inning or so). But even if he's not starting tonight, this begins a new chapter for Boston.
The Red Sox have been calling up new players to the ballclub, hoping to better the team in any way they can. In fact, despite the one Nathaniel Lowe pickup earlier last month, the Red Sox have relied heavily on themselves and within their farm system. They called up Roman Anthony, and Anthony proved his worth as a valuable part of this franchise in less than a month, earning an 8-year extension.
Marcelo Mayer would've done more if he hadn't been hammered by a wrist injury that required season-ending surgery. While there are still questions about his hitting, his defense was phenomenal and more than carried the weight of third base when Alex Bregman went down with a quad injury.
Payton Tolle was just called up last Friday to pitch against the Pittsburgh Pirates, against Paul Skenes, too. His debut was amazing as well, striking out eight batters in just 5 1/3 innings, only giving up two runs. Those two runs were only allowed when Greg Weissert came in after him, giving up a two-run double in the process.
Tolle has only pitched 91.2 innings in his 20 appearances, averaging only around five innings a game. He never made it past the 6th inning in any of his minor league games up to this point.
But because he hasn't thrown many pitches in a game this year and hadn't lasted long, the Red Sox had to make another move. Kyle Harrison was called up to fill the fourth slot in the rotation. The stats for Harrison speak for themselves, striking out 48 batters in 11 starts and 49.1 total innings pitched.
He's added a cutter to his arsenal and has a new grip to his changeup, which has been making things easier for him later in games. It's good to see him improve, and it'd be nice for one of the assets from the Rafael Devers trade to have success. Harrison is the most likely candidate.
After Jordan Hicks being a disaster-class of a pitcher, James Tibbs III being traded at the deadline for Dustin May, and Jose Bello (an unknown pitcher) being nowhere to be found, Harrison is the likely possible outlier.