Baseball Isn’t Boring
BIB on the Go: Payton Tolle Makes The Case For Most Entertaining Interview In Baseball
10 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What makes Payton Tolle the most entertaining interview in baseball?
Yeah, there should be some passion. This doesn't have to be boring. Hey, one thing the game needs is more people like you. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. hoping to get the whole stake this year. So it was a good time, but I think that we're all just so excited to be back, being around these guys again, it just increases everything.
You get excited and see the fans, see how excited they are. So they expect a lot from us, and that's what we're gonna try to deliver. You had a crazy 2025, what have you been working on this off season for 2026? Like, I think everybody knows off speed. So trying to figure out that change up. It's coming along. I like where I'm at with it. Working on the curveball, the big one.
So I think that's going to be what is going to take me to the next step. Excited where I'm at with it. Just continue to work on it, get it on numbers, and see what we can get with it. You were introduced on stage here, like a member of the Red Sox.
Chapter 2: How does Payton Tolle feel about fan expectations for the upcoming season?
You pitched in the big leagues last year. Can you contrast that to a year ago in January? I was golfing, probably, in Florida right now. So, yeah, quite a bit different. I've said, man, I kind of feel cool coming into this thing now. But, yeah. It's been a good experience. Going out on that stage, there's more people than I even expected.
As we're walking around the whole area, it's really cool to be in front of everybody. I'm just going to say excited 50 times in this interview, but it's exciting. How much do you feel like... How important is it that you don't feel content that you've just made it and that you now stick? I mean, I think for a while the goal was be a big leaguer.
And now it's, well, we want to stay a big leaguer until a few years down the line where it's like, well, I want to be known as one of the best big leaguers. So it's just a constant thing. you know, mindset of, okay, what's the next step? How can I be better than, how can I stay hungry? So I'm just trying to work on what I can now and whatever's going to make me the best for this team this year.
Chapter 3: What challenges did Payton Tolle face during his 2025 season?
Just going into the year specifically looking at trying to earn a spot in that rotation and three training. Yeah. I mean, I'm trying to do what I can to be the best pitcher that I can be and whatever, whatever they, you know, assign me to is whatever they assign me to. But like I said, I want to be the best member of the Red Sox that I can be and if whatever role that is.
Within the span of about five weeks last year, you went from AAA to the majors to the postseason. What did you learn about yourself during that whole crazy stretch? That I don't remember a whole lot. It was a whirlwind of a time, but I think I learned that I can hang. And I kind of proved that to myself.
I don't know how many of you remember that first inning in Worcester, but after that first inning in Worcester, Well, these are the big boys. And, you know, finally got settled in, proved myself there.
And then, you know, I saw a lot of things once I got called up that I was, like, learned and thought, okay, now we can go into this offseason, you know, refine what we have right now and go into next season with the best, most confidence we can. Do you have any, like, personal goals for yourself? Um... I think I've kind of, you know, I think we're going to try to set a new PR on Velo.
And then I want to get, I want to increase the strikeouts with my changeup. I think it's going to be the biggest thing, a swing and miss changeup. So it's kind of, or any, really any off speed. So, so yeah. What's your current PR? 100.8.
official so when you look at obviously the workload with the discussion last year just because of everything that happened how has your off season been different or kind of programmed with that in mind it's been it feels like it's a bit slow uh last year in october i think is whenever we started our high intensity stuff and this year is like kind of around this christmas time where we started to increase the velo increase you know the effort the the volume that we were going at so
It's been slower. I've had to kind of take a step back and like, okay, trust the process. We're not behind. We're right on pace. But it's been a little bit different in that aspect. Did you have familiarity with Jake Bennett before? A little bit.
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Chapter 4: What off-season improvements is Payton Tolle focusing on for 2026?
We actually work out at the same place. He's at a little different time slot. So we've crossed paths a couple times, but after he got traded, I was like, He goes to pitching works, right? Yeah. So I've watched a few pins now and just super excited.
Chapter 5: How did Payton Tolle's experience in the big leagues change his perspective?
I think he's an amazing guy. The team has acquired a couple pitchers this offseason. Is there anyone that you're really excited to kind of pick their brain or learn from or someone that you've watched in the past that you've really been like, I want to... Yeah, I think Sonny is probably the... The answer there for me is very excited to learn from him, just the experience that he has.
I also think Oviedo's an amazing guy. I got to meet him. I think, golly, he's The thing Carly said, Moose, I think that's a big guy. So I'm just excited to meet everybody, get around everybody, and then get into spring and see who kind of fall into the groove of talking to all the time. Yeah, Peyton, you mentioned wanting to get more swing and miss on the change.
And how are you going about that? Like, are you chasing certain movement profiles or below differences? A little bit both. For me, it's going to be more of my vertical break on it, trying to have more separation with my fastball with it. But also, like, I see it throw for strikes more. I didn't let you know, I made it to where people only
100 fastball because they didn't have to respect anything else with the curveball like uh and go back to that arizona start a lot and like the off speed just nothing landed for a strike couldn't find anything other than fastballs and they teed off on it um so just trying to find it in the zone um as much as i can and then uh yeah the the the vertical break is something that you know trying to
It's awesome that now they're going to have to figure that out, how to write that in a paper of me. So, I'm going to come in one day and just speak in Ottomanapias, and you guys are going to have a great time with that. Yeah, like, are you below the zero line on your change that you're working on now? We're right at it.
I think the average is pretty close to zero, which originally the goal was three vert. Three positive? Three positive, right. So, that would be... anywhere from 15 to 20 off of my regular heater. So I'm trying to work on that. I think I'm getting pretty close to the zero line with the kick change. Have you been working with Connelly early this offseason?
We've been together at the different things across the way, and we keep up with each other quite a bit. Haven't been with him, with him. I've actually been at the place with Bennett and Samlin. But we keep up with each other, and we're both kind of pushing each other for our goals. Have you been recognized a lot more?
Yeah, I was walking in Sam's one day and had two people come up to me, and I was like, yeah, man, I'm just trying to get my mass-produced waffles, man. That's all I'm here for. I'm going to get a fruit bag, and you just want me to take a picture with you. So a little bit, yeah, especially you get around Boston, you get around Fenway, and it's like, oh, you're that guy. You have the mustache.
I'm like, yeah, I guess. Sam's? It's like Sam's Club. Like Costco. You were food shopping. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, $1.50 hot dog combo there. Yeah, big hot dog. We went and had a family dinner there a few times this month. Get two-piece size pizza, four-meat pizza. They got a nice brisk raspberry tea there. It's pretty good. So, yeah, maybe the Sam's is like, hey, brand new, I dig it.
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