Red Sox 2025 Wild Card roster announced: Connelly Early and Payton Tolle make the cut; nine players total have playoff experience

NEW YORK — The Red Sox announced their 2025 American League Wild Card roster ahead of Game 1 at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.

Boston will carry 12 pitchers and 14 positional players, including rookies Connelly Early and Payton Tolle. The Sox also have left-handed pitcher Kyle Harrison on the roster.

Lucas Giolito will miss the AL Wild Card round due to an elbow injury and flew to Alabama to visit Dr. Jeffrey Dugan, the orthopedic surgeon who performed his internal brace procedure prior to the start of last season. Giolito was expected to be the leading candidate to start a potential Game 3 if necessary. Garrett Crochet will start Game 1, with Brayan Bello set to pitch Game 2. Boston has not yet announced a starter for Game 3, but presumably it will either be Early or Harrison getting the nod.

“Lucas is not going to be on the roster,” Alex Cora announced Monday during his media availability in the Bronx. “He has been battling with his elbow the last few days. Today, he went to see Dr. Dugas. Hopefully, it’s nothing major, but he won’t be ready for this one.”

Giolito’s injury is a big blow to the Red Sox rotation as they begin their playoff journey.

“It kind of came on fairly gradually,” said Craig Breslow. “He just felt kind of fatigued and wasn’t recovering quite as well, and it didn’t really raise a ton of alarm with the medical staff. We were pretty confident he would be ready (for the postseason). But then, gradually, the symptoms got worse and worse to the point that it obviously became an issue.

“This wasn’t a case where we felt he was pitching through something because we could have flagged it earlier. He just felt like he wasn’t recovering like he was used to, but it’s September, and I think that’s probably to be expected. But particularly (Sunday) afternoon, it started to get to a place where we needed to figure out what’s going on.”

Tolle, Early, and Harrison could potentially contribute in the Wild Card series against the Yankees, testing Boston's young pitching pipeline.

Early has made four starts since he was called up by the Red Sox in early (no pun intended) September and shown the ability to miss bats while limiting walks, but it should be noted his starts have come against the Athletics (twice), the Rays, and the Tigers.

Over four starts with the Sox, Early was 1-2 with a 2.33 ERA with 29 strikeouts and a 1.09 WHIP. His brief time with the club has impressed the leader of the Sox’ rotation.

“I knew that I had the stuff to belong (as a rookie), and that’s kind of what I see in Early,” Crochet said Monday during his media availability. “When Early came up, it was a sense of comfortability in who he was. Not in a boisterous way where he’s being loud in the clubhouse, but just more so in that he knows who he is. And I think that you could see that in Harrison as well.”

After pitching the majority of the season for Triple-A Worcester, Harrison has a spot on the postseason roster and will offer the club a possible Game 3 starter or a bulk-innings reliever. Harrison recorded a 3.00 ERA in 12 innings for Boston, where he struck out 13 batters with five walks in three games (two starts).

Tolle will offer the Sox a high-octane left-handed arm out of the bullpen. He topped out at 100.1 mph in the Sox’ 7-1 win over the Blue Jays on Wednesday night. The 6-foot-7 lefty posted a 6.06 ERA with 19 strikeouts to eight walks in 16 1/3 innings. He made three starts in seven appearances and had an issue with the long ball, allowing five homers over that span.

“I think everybody has seen the growing pains a little bit,” Tolle said earlier this week to reporters. “It’s a lot different. These hitters have plans, and they execute those plans. So it’s been different from level to level. And each time I move, I’m trying to learn something new about myself and about the game. But I think that we’ve seen the growing pains. I think we’re starting to turn it around. But every time I go out there, I’m trying to pick something up. Because success is going to leave clues, and failure is going to leave bigger clues.”

The Sox also added some speed off the bench in both Nate Eaton and David Hamilton. In addition, Nick Sogard will be on the playoff roster for the first time in his career.

Here is the roster:

PITCHERS (12): Brayan Bello, Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Crochet, Connelly Early, Kyle Harrison, Zack Kelly, Steven Matz, Justin Slaten, Payton Tolle, Greg Weissert, Garrett Whitlock, Justin Wilson

CATCHERS (2): Carlos Narváez, Connor Wong

INFIELDERS (4): Alex Bregman, David Hamilton, Nathaniel Lowe, Trevor Story

OUTFIELDERS (4): Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran, Rob Refsnyder, Masataka Yoshida

INFIELDER/OUTFIELDERS (4): Nate Eaton, Romy Gonzalez, Ceddanne Rafaela, Nick Sogard

Only nine players on the Red Sox postseason roster have playoff experience, with veterans Bregman and Chapman leading the way. Bregman has played in 99 career postseason games, all with the Astros, and owns a .238 average with 88 hits, 19 homers, 54 RBI, and a .789 OPS.

Chapman has pitched in 44 playoff games; he has 10 saves with a 2.37 ERA in 49 1/3 innings. He’s struck out 68 batters, and opponents have only hit .199 against the hard-throwing southpaw.

His former skipper, Aaron Boone, is well-versed with Chapman and offered praise for his former closer.

“This might be his best season, or certainly one of them, and that’s saying something,” Boone said Monday.

The lefty was dominant this season, finishing with a 1.17 ERA, 0.70 WHIP, 85 strikeouts, and 15 walks in 67 games (61 1/3 innings). Chapman converted 32 of 34 save opportunities and held opponents to a .132 batting average.

He also went 17 straight outings from July 26 to Sept. 7 without allowing a hit.

Chapman and Whitlock are two key pitchers that Cora will need to rely on during this quick series in the Bronx if the Sox are going to look to advance past the Yankees.

“But their bullpen has, I feel like, done a really good job of coming together. They got some different looks down there, too. They brought up some people who could play meaningful roles down there as well. So they’ll be a challenge.”

The first pitch is expected at 6:08 p.m. and Boston Sports Journal will be at Yankee Stadium for the entire AL Wild Card round.