Why Red Sox Should Replace Walker Buehler With 22-Year-Old Top Prospect

The changing of the guard is coming soon for the Boston Red Sox rotation.

Of the five members of the rotation the Red Sox have carried for most of the second half, two are impending free agents, and a third can join them if he pitches a few more innings. That means beyond Brayan Bello and Garrett Crochet, spots are very much up for grabs.

One of those spots has opened up early, though. Walker Buehler was removed from the Boston rotation on Friday after being scheduled to start this coming Monday. And while the Red Sox have yet to announce who will take that start, the person who should assume Buehler's job long-term is a pitcher yet to debut in the majors.

Payton Tolle is best option for Red Sox down the stretch

According to Chris Cotillo of MassLive, the candidates to start Monday's game against the Baltimore Orioles are Richard Fitts (if he isn't used out of the bullpen on Sunday) and Kyle Harrison, who hasn't been recalled from Triple-A since he came over in the Rafael Devers trade. Both have reasonable amounts of big-league experience under their belt, but aren't fully entrenched in the long-term picture.

But after Monday, the Red Sox need to take a long and hard look at what 22-year-old Payton Tolle has been doing in the minor leagues.

Tolle had his third Triple-A start on Friday, and he was dominant as can be. In five innings, he allowed one run on one hit while striking out nine batters. He started the season in High-A after getting drafted in the second round last year, but Boston has acknowledged that he's in the mix to get starts down the stretch.

To some degree, strikeouts are king when measuring a pitching prospect against minor league competition, because to feel confident in bringing someone up to the majors, you want to see that they've been dominating inferior hitters. That's what Tolle has done in spades this year.

With 133 punchouts in 91 2/3 innings this year, Tolle is proving to be too overpowering for those youngsters to handle -- and his high-90s fastball combined with 7 1/2 feet of extension should be plenty to help him dominate big-leaguers too.

So when the Red Sox are trying to win big games in September, who do they want on the mound? If they're selling out to try and win now, it should be the pitcher with the nastiest stuff who looks most ready to compete against playoff-level competition.