Last summer the Red Sox made pitching a top priority in the draft, selecting 14 arms over the course of 20 rounds to help replenish a farm system that for years lacked high-end arms.

Less than a year later, two of the top players from that class are already beginning to turn heads.

Payton Tolle and Brandon Clarke, both hard throwers who were among Boston’s top five selections in last year’s draft, have gotten off to fantastic starts in their professional careers. Both pitchers have made impressive velocity gains to push their fastballs into the high 90s, and Wednesday the two broke into Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospect rankings, giving the Red Sox six players on the list.

Tolle, Boston’s second-round pick and the highest remaining player in the class after first-rounder Braden Montgomery was traded in the Garrett Crochet deal, checked in at No. 94. Clarke, a left-hander taken in the fifth round, broke into the rankings at No. 96.

They join Roman Anthony (1), Kristian Campbell (3), Marcelo Mayer (9) and Franklin Arias (68), though Campbell needs only a handful more at-bats to graduate from prospect status.

Farm Report: Top-ranked Red Sox system living up to early hype

Tolle came in as the more heralded name. A 6-foot-6 right-hander out of TCU, Tolle is a mountain of a man who in addition to boasting high velo can also release the ball so close to home plate that hitters have even less time to react than usual.

Red Sox assistant general manager Paul Toboni said they already liked his physicality and the shape of his pitches when they drafted him, and now his fastball is up to 98 mph. The results have been on full display in High-A Greenville, where on Sunday Tolle struck out 12 batters over five scoreless innings in his best start as a pro to date.

“He’s obviously got huge extension, his fastball plays, and with that added velocity his off-speed stuff is picking up too,” Toboni said.

But while Tolle was a hot commodity out of the draft, Clarke was practically an unknown, at least outside of the Red Sox organization. The 21-year-old last played at State College of Florida, a junior college in Bradenton, and wasn’t even ranked among Boston’s top 30 prospects entering the spring.

Then he stepped on the mound during March’s Spring Breakout game and immediately put the sport on notice.

Facing a Tampa Bay Rays lineup that featured some of the top prospects in the sport, Clarke began unleashing a 99 mph fastball and an unexpectedly expansive pitch arsenal. For many in attendance it was a real “who is this guy?” moment.

Clarke has been outstanding ever since. Last month he was promoted to High-A Greenville after only three starts at Low-A Salem, and through his first four career starts the lefty has struck out 24 batters over 14.1 innings while posting a 0.63 ERA.

“You see him in spring training and you see what his body looks like and his athleticism and the fact that he’s up to 100 from the left side, it’s like, ‘why did you idiots wait until the fifth round’ or whatever it was we took him?” Toboni said. “His path hasn’t been linear, but we were taking a bet on the person that he would realize whatever potential he has, and so far I think he’s really on the right track.”

“He added velo, he added new pitches, and at the end of the day he’s throwing strikes and challenging guys in the strike zone and getting swings and misses in the strike zone,” said Brian Abraham, Boston’s senior director of player development. “That’s all you can ask for.”

Other young arms have also made a strong early impression. Luis Perales just missed Baseball America’s list despite the fact that he won’t pitch in 2025 after undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, and others like Connelly Early and Juan Valera, an 18-year-old who is already hitting 100 mph on the radar gun, may soon find themselves in top-100 prospect consideration as well.

But if the goal of last year’s draft was to jumpstart Boston’s pitching pipeline, the early returns so far have been nothing short of outstanding.

Teenage slugger earns big promotion

After his first season as a professional last year in the Dominican Republic, 18-year-old outfielder Justin Gonzales has earned a huge vote of confidence from the Red Sox, who assigned the teenager to Low-A Salem this past weekend after only one game in the Florida Complex League.

“In many ways it’s unprecedented for us,” Toboni said. “Usually we have our prospects, especially our international prospects at this age get extended run in Florida, but we thought he was a little bit of a different case.”

Gonzales, Boston’s Latin Program Player of the Year for 2024, is a hulking figure at 6-foot-4 who likely weighs considerably more at this point than his listed 210 pounds. Gonzales boasts incredible power and has already demonstrated the ability to generate eye-popping exit velocities, and in March he drew attention when he cleared JetBlue Park’s Green Monster replica during the Futures at Fenway South prospect showcase.

Gonzales made his in-game debut stateside this past weekend in Florida after spending the first month of the season in extended spring training, which proved to be one final tune-up before his long-planned promotion to Salem.

“That one game he played in he was really good so we felt like it was time to move him,” Abraham joked. “No, I think everything we saw last year in the DR, his ability to handle the strike zone, swing decisions, his impacting the baseball and the consistency to be able to that, and even the defense was really solid, I think he carried that on to spring training this year.”

“He’s really advanced from a hitting standpoint,” Toboni said. “He’s already physically really in a great spot, he does a really good job of hitting the ball hard and making contact and making good swing decisions.”

Upon arriving in Salem, Gonzales immediately became one of the youngest players with any affiliated minor league club. He’ll face a challenging transition not only to the higher level of competition, but also to life in an unfamiliar environment as a teenager who hasn’t spent much time in the U.S. and doesn’t speak English well yet. Toboni said those factors were front of mind and were a key reason he spent an extra month in Fort Myers, but they feel Gonzales is up to the task.

“We do think he’s ready, we wouldn’t have made the move if we didn’t, and that excites us,” Toboni said. “It speaks to the maturity and the type of kid he is.”