The Red Sox Finally Developed a Starter. Now Don’t Waste Him.

The Red Sox finally developed a starting pitcher. Somebody check the basement at Fenway. There might be a working fax machine and a coherent offseason plan down there, too.

Payton Tolle’s emergence deserves something increasingly rare around here: a compliment without a sarcastic asterisk.

He earned it. The people who helped develop him earned some credit, too. And now comes the uncomfortable part for the people upstairs: success creates responsibility.

When you develop a pitcher worth building around, the next move should be to build around him. Not admire your handiwork, update the organizational slide deck, and decide the rest of the roster can probably figure itself out.

Tolle finished third in American League Rookie of the Year voting Monday night, behind Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle and Cleveland’s Parker Messick. McGonigle received 28 of the 30 first-place votes; Tolle finished with 54 points. That is recognition worth celebrating, not an invitation to manufacture a robbery.

As Chris Cotillo reported for MassLive, Tolle made 26 starts, went 9–6 and posted a 3.03 ERA over 148⅔ innings. His 171 strikeouts were the second-most by a rookie in Red Sox history, behind Daisuke Matsuzaka’s 201 in 2007.

That is a season. Not three impressive starts followed by six months of people telling you to look at the underlying metrics. Not a prospect ranking you print out and hold up to the television while the actual team loses.

A real pitcher. Real innings. Real results.

Craig Breslow praised Tolle’s development Monday, emphasizing his willingness to improve and his appetite for the next step. Cotillo’s report also noted that Tolle is discussing additions to his arsenal and preparing for a full-season workload.

Good. That is the attitude you want from the player. It should also be the attitude of the organization.

There is something particularly encouraging…