“I am a small guy,” Early said Wednesday, “compared to those mooses on the mound.”

At about the halfway point of the offseason — two months since the season ended and a shade over two months until spring training begins — it’s working. He has jumped from 196 pounds to 215, the highest of his life, with a winter goal of 220.

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Tolle, who saw Early this week for the first time since the season ended, has noticed.

“I think thick might be a wrong word there. Or it might be the right word,” said Tolle, adding that he still holds a 30-pound lead on Early. “It’s starting to turn into eh, maybe you don’t want to push Connelly around too much.”

Early’s goals stemmed from conversations with manager Alex Cora, who wanted him to be bigger and stronger, and team nutritionists and the pitching department. Like many players, he struggled to maintain weight over the course of the season. The point of adding weight — specifically muscle — is to improve his durability and velocity.

“We said all time last year, mass equals gas,” Tolle said.

In a four-start cameo (in which he had a 2.33 ERA and 1.09 WHIP across 19⅓ innings) at the end of the regular season, Early’s four-seam fastball averaged 94 miles per hour. His sinker was 93.

“I would love to sit at like a 95[-m.p.h.] range,” Early said. “Looking at some statistical things, if fastball velocity is closer to 95, then hopefully it’ll — based on expected numbers — play a little bit better. And hopefully that results in everything else ticking up as well from the offspeed [perspective]. But I’m just kind of hoping that the velocity happens naturally.”

For the first time in three offseasons as a professional, Early is based at home in Richmond, Va., where he has been working out at Adams Performance with about 20 other pros, including Red Sox utility man Nate Eaton, a fellow Virginian who introduced Early to the facility.

The past two years, Early spent almost all of his time at the Red Sox’ campus in Fort Myers, Fla., as part of the organization’s nearly-year-round training for minor leaguers.

Early has, in a sense, graduated.

“It is nice to get away and just have that extra little bit of time hanging out with the family,” he said.

🎶It’s a wonderful feeling
Feel the love in the room from the floor to the ceiling
It’s that time of year
The @RedSox Holiday Caravan is here!

As a part of the Red Sox Holiday Caravan, Connor Wong, Connelly Early, Nate Eaton, Nick Sogard, and Payton Tolle visited @DanaFarber‘s… pic.twitter.com/gArqSFuDLD

— The Jimmy Fund (@TheJimmyFund) December 3, 2025

Early changed it up this week by participating in the Red Sox’ Holiday Caravan, a two-day, five-stop tour in and around Boston. Early, Tolle, Eaton Connor Wong, and Nick Sogard spread cheer by visiting with cancer patients, local youth, and non-profit organizations.

Wednesday afternoon that brought them to the Fenway Community Center, around the corner from the ballpark.

“I think more people are excited for Wally and Tessie than they are for the players, but that makes total sense,” Tolle said. “It’s a fun way to give back and also just spread joy.”

Wong said: “Being able to connect with the city and get to know some of the people who live around here and be able to help out in whatever way we can, it’s been great for all of us.”

Red Sox pitcher Payton Tolle is already bored this offseason and ready to improve his arsenal of secondary pitches.Brian Fluharty/Getty

‘Exhale’ and ice cream for Tolle

Upon the conclusion of Tolle’s whirlwind 2025 — from a professional debut at High A to taking the mound at Yankee Stadium in the playoffs — he went home to Oklahoma to decompress.

Boredom arrived quickly.

“For about a month there, it was a good exhale. But it also took me, like, a week and a half to kind of be like, let’s start going again,” Tolle said. “I think I watched two or three episodes of ‘Full Swing’ one day and then I was like, yeah, I’m ready to get going again. I’m tired of just eating ice cream every day and not doing anything about it.”

Tolle’s up-and-down first taste of the majors — 6.06 ERA, 1.59 WHIP, 19 strikeouts but five home runs in 16⅓ innings — underscored the need to develop secondary pitches, which has been his offseason focus.

Lately, Tolle has liked his changeup, which specifically is a kick-change, a trendy splitter-like variation in which the middle finger usually is the last to touch the ball.

“You kind of go back and look at the good reps, and it’s there,” Tolle said. “It’s just now we just need to get the feel for it.”

Red Sox catcher Connor Wong had surgery this offseason to remove a bony growth from his right hand.Sergio Estrada/Associated Press

Wong said he is fully recovered from October surgery that removed a bony growth from his right hand.

It had bothered him for several years, including limiting his range of motion — important for his throwing hand and top hand when swinging. Since he intended to take time off after the season anyway, he figured that operation and recovery was a good use of sitting around.

Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said last month that the Sox “still believe in the player that [Wong] is,” describing his poor 2025 as not representative of his abilities.

“That’s kind of how I feel, too,” Wong said. “I’m glad he feels that way and the team feels that way about me.”

Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.