Joe Boyle Turning a Corner in Las Vegas

Jason Burke | Aug 7, 2024

Apr 19, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Joe Boyle (35) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports / Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Joe Boyle made his big-league debut in 2023 with the Oakland A's and put himself on the map in the 16 innings he accrued in September, posting a 1.69 ERA with a 0.81 WHIP. With a couple of starters unavailable for the start of the 2024 season, Boyle made the A's rotation to begin the season.

In seven starts with the A's to begin the campaign, he posted a 7.16 ERA, held a 1.73 WHIP, and had walked 23 batters in 27 2/3 innings. He was pulled from his final start with Oakland due to back pain, and landed on the IL with a lower back strain. He was sent on a rehab start not too long after, and was officially optioned to Triple-A at the beginning of June while he worked on some things.

He made four starts in June, totaling 9 1/3 innings that included 17 walks.

Since then, he has been a little better overall, putting up a 3.00 ERA across five July appearances in 21 innings pitched. The good news is that he struck out an absurdly high 40 batters in those innings. The bad news is that he was still walking hitters, totaling 12 for the month.

On Tuesday night in Salt Lake, Boyle put together his best outing of the season, going 5 2/3 innings, allowing just one hit, no runs, one walk, all while striking out 12 batters. He topped out at 100.1 miles per hour with his fastball and recorded 12 swings and misses--seven on his heater, and five on his slider. He threw 86 pitches, and all but three that were classified as sweepers were either his four-seamer or his slider.

It's also noteworthy that his fastball velocity was up 2.1 miles per hour over his season average, from 96.6 to 98.7. His slider was also up to 88.4, an increase of 1.3 mph. He was getting more vertical movement on his four-seam, too. On the year, he has had an average of 13, but on Tuesday his low for the evening was 12, and his average was 16, for an increase of three.

The A's will likely give him through at least the end of the month to see if Boyle can sustain some of the gains he's made in recent weeks. If he does, then they could look to bring him up at some point in September.

Boyle will turn 25 in a week and still has three minor-league options remaining, so a decision on his future role doesn't need to be rushed. Worst case scenario, he heads to the bullpen to be another hard-throwing right-hander for the A's to utilize.