Boston still has five players ranked among Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects.
Payton Tolle has flown up the prospect rankings amid his breakout 2025 campaign. Gwinn Davis/Greenville Drive
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Even with Roman Anthony and Kristian Campbell losing their prospect status, Baseball America still has the Red Sox farm system ranked highly on its midseason talent rankings.
Boston’s pipeline came in at No. 5 in baseball according to Baseball America, bolstered by Marcelo Mayer still meeting the prospect criteria and coming in at No. 10 on the overall Top 100 prospects list.
In total, the Red Sox had five players ranked in the Top 100: Mayer, pitchers Payton Tolle (41) and Kyson Witherspoon (65), shortstop Franklin Arias (51), and outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia (79).
Boston has long been touted as one of the best farm systems in baseball, and was ranked No. 1 as recently as the beginning of 2025.
However, much of the hype with Red Sox prospects came from the “big three” of Anthony, Mayer, and former first-round pick Kyle Teel. That trio turned into a quartet when Campbell shot up the rankings last season, and then back into a trio after Teel was dealt to the Chicago White Sox in the Garrett Crochet trade.
But even with Mayer being the lone representation of that talented 2024 group, there is still plenty of hype surrounding a few of Boston’s minor leaguers. In particular, Tolle has flown up the prospect rankings amid his breakout 2025 season.
Not only is Tolle in Baseball America’s top-50, he’s also No. 28 on MLB Pipeline’s rankings, which were updated this week. The 6-foot-6 lefty started the year in Greenville, Boston’s High-A affiliate, but has already worked his way to Triple-A Worcester. He has a 3.31 ERA and 119 strikeouts across 18 minor league appearances in 2025.
Tolle’s stock has risen so fast that some wonder if he’ll get an opportunity to help the major league club as an extra arm down the stretch. At 22, Tolle still has plenty of option years left if Alex Cora and the Red Sox elect to use him late in the season and return him to Worcester for the start of 2026.
Arias and Garcia’s names both popped up around trade deadline chatter as potential prospects that could be included in packages. Neither got moved though, and remain on the rise at their respective minor league levels. Garcia has been working out at first base in Worcester as a potential option for Boston late in 2025. He’s batting .281 with 19 home runs so far in 2025.
Witherspoon has gone more under the radar as a pitching prospect than Tolle, but also has starting potential with a fastball nearing 100 miles per hour at its highest velocity. With Tolle and Witherspoon alone, Boston’s pitching pipeline is in a better place than it had been over the last few seasons prior to 2025.
Having a deep pipeline is an advantage for the building Red Sox. Not only do they have a plethora of future talent at their disposal, they also have enough formidable prospects to deal some away if the right situation arises to bolster weaker areas of their lineup.