This article was originally published as part of Verducci’s View, a weekly baseball newsletter from Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci. Every Monday, Tom empties out his notebook over email and covers MLB’s hottest topics, provides in-depth analysis through both text and video breakdowns, looks forward to what’s worth watching during the week and more. If you want to be featured in his new mailbag, please email [email protected] with any questions about MLB or his decades in the sport.
The Red Sox have two left-handed rookies in their rotation who are 25 or under, Payton Tolle and Jake Bennett. That has happened only once before in franchise history (minimum 12 starts): in 1949, when Mickey McDermott, then 20, and Chuck Stobbs, 19, combined to go 16–10 for a Boston team that won 96 games and finished second.
