For Tampa Bay’s Joe Boyle, Freedom and Repetition Are the Keys To Command

Joe Boyle is emerging as a late-bloomer success story. Now 26 years old, the Tampa Bay Rays right-hander is coming off a campaign during which he not only continued to display a power arsenal, but began to rein in his command as well. Over 86 innings with Triple-A Durham, Boyle paired a 32.9% strikeout rate with an 11.8% walk rate; across 52 innings with the big league club, those numbers were 25.7% and 12.4%. While admittedly far from George Kirby-esque, those free-pass percentages were nonetheless a meaningful step in the right direction.

Boyle’s relationship with the strike zone has long been tenuous. In May 2024, Eric Longenhagen wrote that while “Boyle has had huge stuff for his entire life as a prospect, [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-8, 250-pound hurler’s offerings, adding a caveat that he has “zero feel for location.”

Something else that Longenhagen wrote 13 months ago bears noting:

“It’s possible that the Rays will attempt to do with Boyle what they successfully accomplished with 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 by RosterResource, Boyle is now with 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 subsequently swapped to the Oakland Athletics in 2023, and then to Tampa Bay the following winter. It is understandable that 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 the pitchers most similar to Boyle based on velocity and movement comprises Chase Burns, Jacob deGrom, Dylan Cease, Hunter Greene, and Bubba Chandler.

Boyle sat down to discuss his development strides, and the thoughtful approach he brings to his craft, when the Rays visited Fenway Park in the penultimate week of the 2025 season.

———

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

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

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

Laurila: I recall that there was talk of you being better suited for a relief role. How did the Reds approach that?

Boyle: “They kind of gave me an option, and I told them that I wanted to start. I was a little surprised 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 that I could. Kyle especially. Kyle was the one who was on board with it right away.

“After the fact, I learned that the sheer amount of innings you get with starting was something I really needed. The repetition of getting in games and throwing against professional hitters was crucial to my development. Of course, there was a lot of failure mixed in.”

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

Boyle: “Not necessarily. I think that… I mean, it’s all tied together, right? Nothing is separate in this game. The mental is intertwined with the physical, the emotional, and the spiritual. As human beings, we’re fully integrated. So it was never direct mechanical work. It’s been more like freeing my mind up so that my body could move with freedom as well. With freedom, results generally come.”

Laurila: I’m sure you’ve worked to move more efficiently on the mound?

Boyle: “I have trained my body, yes, but to a large degree the training is pitching. Over time, as a starter in professional baseball, or even for the past 15 years of my life… the body builds up adaptations to throw. You build these physical, these neurological, adaptations to pitching. That has been the majority of my training. Throwing. Pitching. So I trust it. I trust the adaptation my body is creating in order to utilize it better.

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

Laurila: That said, would I see any difference in mechanics if looked at film of you over the years?

Boyle: “We’re always changing, right? Within baseball, our deliveries, our swings, are always changing, even if marginally. If you looked back at my delivery from five years ago, I’m sure it would look different. My delivery from three years ago, slightly. Even my delivery from last year, slightly. It happens. You go through ebbs and flows. Sometimes you go down the wrong path. At the beginning of [2024], I went down a weird path with the way I was moving on the mound. I think that was linked to how I was doing mentally. Over time, I freed myself up mentally, and my delivery followed.”

Laurila: I had a conversation with Max Scherzer earlier this season where he stressed 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’re going to throw. You believe in yourself. You believe in the process that you have created and built. You’re going to throw with freedom, without the fear of failing, because in reality, you can’t ever fail. You can just learn.”

Laurila: Some guys dig really deep into pitching analytics, while others more or less just throw the baseball. Where do you fit into that equation? For instance, have you evolved into a data nerd since coming to pro ball?

Boyle: “I mean, it depends how you define it. As far as just throwing the ball… we essentially all do that, right? We throw the baseball, and then the hitters will dictate what we need to do. The numbers tell a story of what’s going on, but what’s happening is between the lines. That’s something I think we forget a little bit as an industry. So I wouldn’t consider myself a nerd. But I do understand it. I understand the language, and I pay attention to the information in order to self-regulate during a season. Really, it’s just another part of this whole thing that makes us up as pitchers, that makes up our process. It’s not just data. It’s not just feeling and physical. It’s everything that’s combined together.

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