For Tampa Bay’s Joe Boyle, freedom and repetition are the keys to command

Joe Boyle is emerging as a success story for late bloomers. Now 26 years old, the Tampa Bay Rays right-hander is coming off a campaign in which he not only continued to display an arsenal of power but also began to rein in his command. Over 86 innings with Triple-A Durham, Boyle combined a strikeout rate of 32.9% with a walk rate of 11.8%; over 52 innings with the big league club, those figures were 25.7% and 12.4%. While admittedly it is far from it George KirbyRegardless, those free passage rates were nonetheless a meaningful step in the right direction.

Boyle’s relationship with the offensive zone has long been tenuous. In May 2024, Eric Longenhagen wrote that while “Boyle has had big things as a prospect all his life, [he has] also been very wild.” Fast forward to December of that same year, and our lead prospect analyst again cited the nastiness of the 6-foot-4, 250-pound pitcher’s offer, adding a caveat that he has “no sense of location.”

Something else Longenhagen wrote thirteen months ago deserves mention:

“It’s possible the Rays will try to do with Boyle what they’ve successfully accomplished Tyler Glasnow: Simplify his delivery to make it more consistent and hope it’s enough for him to be a five-inning starter.”

Currently projected as the Rays’ fifth starter through RosterResource, Boyle is now at his third organization. Selected in the fifth round of the 2020 draft by the Cincinnati Reds out of the University of Notre Dame, he was then traded to the Oakland Athletics in 2023 and then to Tampa Bay the following winter. Understandably, the pitching-savvy Rays were and remain enamored with his potential. While Boyle’s success at the Major League level has been spotty (his ERA last season was 4.67), his COMPs stick out like a sore thumb. Baseball Savant’s list of pitchers most resembles Boyle based on speed and movement Chase Burns, Jacob de Grom, Dylan stops, Hunter GreeneAnd Bubba Chandler.

Boyle sat down to discuss his developmental steps and the thoughtful approach he takes to his craft when the Rays visited Fenway Park in the penultimate week of the 2025 season.

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David Laurila: What did you know about yourself as a pitcher when you entered pro ball, and what did the Reds initially want you to focus on?

Joe Boyle: “When I got drafted, I knew I had speed, and having speed was a big indicator of things. I knew I had the ability to make good things. It was the consistency of performance that was an issue.

“Kyle Boddy does [Cincinnati’s] director of pitching at the time, and what I remember most is that they wanted me to focus on my strengths. They wanted me to focus on my stuff and use it to take guys out. There was also an emphasis – similar to what we’re doing here with Tampa – on a “spread the dish” approach. Basically, attacking hitters over the heart of the zone and letting your stuff move the way it’s going to move, rather than trying to throw to specific quadrants.

Laurila: I remember it being said that you would be better suited for a side role. How did the Reds handle that?

Boyle: “They kind of gave me an option, and I told them I wanted to start. I was a little surprised that they were so willing to do that, and I’m glad they did. I thought I could do it – I believed in my ability to figure it out – and they seemed to feel like I could. Especially Kyle. Kyle was the one who jumped at it right away.

“Afterwards, I found that the sheer number of innings you get starting was something I really needed. The repetition of competing in games and pitching against professional hitters was crucial to my development. Of course, there was a lot of failure in there.”

Laurila: Have mechanical adjustments played a big role in your improvement?

Boyle: “Not necessarily. I think… I mean, it’s all connected, right? Nothing is separated in this game. The mental is intertwined with the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual. As human beings, we are fully integrated. So it was never directly mechanical work. It was more a matter of freeing my mind so that my body could also move in freedom. With freedom generally comes results.”

Laurila: I’m sure you’ve been working on moving more efficiently on the hill?

Boyle: “I’ve trained my body, yes, but a lot of the training is pitching. Over time, as a starter in professional baseball, or even over the last 15 years of my life… the body builds up adaptations to throwing. You build these physical, neurological adaptations to pitching. That’s been the bulk of my training. Throwing. Pitching. So I trust it. I trust the adaptation that my body creates to use it better.”

“In the gym, the emphasis is really just on regaining range of motion and getting strong through the full range of motion, and getting strong and powerful through four ranges of motion.”

Laurila: That said, would I see any difference in mechanics if I watched any of your films over the years?

Boyle: “We’re always changing, right? In baseball, our deliveries, our swings are always changing, even if only marginally. If you look back at my delivery five years ago, I’m sure it would look different. My delivery three years ago, somewhat. Even my delivery last year, somewhat. It happens. You go through ebbs and flows. Sometimes you go down the wrong path. At the beginning of [2024]I was going down a strange path with the way I moved over the hill. I think that had to do with how I was doing mentally. Over time, I freed myself mentally and followed my delivery.”

Laurila: I had a conversation with Max Scherzer earlier this season he emphasized the importance of throwing pitches with conviction.

Boyle: “You have to believe in yourself – believe in yourself despite the environment, despite the distractions. You believe in the pitch you are going to throw. You believe in yourself. You believe in the process you have created and built. You are going to throw with freedom, without the fear of failure, because in reality you can never fail. You can just learn.”

Laurila: Some guys dig really deep into pitching analysis, while others more or less just throw baseball. Where do you fit into that equation? For example, have you evolved into a data nerd since coming to professional football?

Boyle: “I mean, it depends on how you define it. As far as throwing the ball… we all kind of do that, right? We throw the baseball, and then the hitters will dictate what we have to do. The numbers tell a story about what’s going on, but what happens is between the lines. That’s something that I think we as an industry are kind of forgetting. So I wouldn’t consider myself a nerd. But I understand it. I understand the language and I pay attention to the information to help self-regulate during a season. Actually, it’s just another part of this whole that shapes us as pitchers, that’s not just the feeling and the physical.

“Sometimes it’s easy to know what to throw and where to throw it. Doing it is the hardest part. In this game, consistently executing is the hardest part, and that goes for both sides of the ball. For me, it’s about getting reps, believing in myself and getting better along the way. The whole idea of ​​pitching… I know I have the stuff. Sometimes you don’t have to think much. Sometimes you’re basically just out there throwing. And it’s not a linear process, either.”