Tuesday, August 05

Hello and welcome to the Rays Beat newsletter. With Rays beat reporter Adam Berry on paternity leave, MLB.com writer David Adler is pinch-hitting this week with a look at Joe Boyle’s new arm slot.

Joe Boyle has always pitched like a freight train. But he's made one big change to help him stay on the tracks. 

Boyle is a true power pitcher. He's 6-foot-8. He throws 100 mph. And until late last year, he came straight over the top at you. 

But that's the change. Boyle's arm slot is way lower with the Rays than when he first got to the big leagues with the A's.

Boyle's arm angle this season is 20 degrees lower than it was in his first season in 2023. That's a huge move from over-the-top toward sidearm. 

Why would a young pitcher make such a dramatic change so early in his career? Simple: 

"It was coming out faster, and it felt better," Boyle told MLB.com. 

You can already see the results with Tampa Bay, too. Boyle has a 2.30 ERA in seven outings (three starts) after shutting down the Dodgers in his last start. 

Boyle first started to change his arm slot after the A's sent him to Triple-A last June. He had lost some velocity from his September 2023 big league debut to the start of ‘24 -- his four-seamer was down from 98 mph to closer to 96 mph -- and dropping down to a lower arm angle helped him regain it. 

"That was the start of it," Boyle said. "It started to lower last year after I got sent down. And it's gotten even a tick lower since then. When I was in the game, the ball was coming out so much faster."

When Boyle returned to the Majors down the stretch, his velocity spiked. In August and September, his fastball averaged 99 mph. This season, it's sitting at 98. 

He credits the change in arm slot for that. 

"My arm felt better when I did that," Boyle said. "It wasn't feeling as good before when it was higher, and then I lowered it and it was feeling a lot better. Seriously, I just went in the game, and it was like, 'Oh, wow. The velo's back.' I was like, 'Let's just go with this for now.' And it's working." 

It's not just his heater, either. 

Boyle's also been able to throw his slider harder -- his velo there is up from 88 mph to 91 mph. For a power pitcher like him, every extra tick helps. 

The new, lower arm angle is also behind Boyle developing his nasty "splinker" with the Rays as his third pitch. That's the sinker/splitter hybrid -- with the velocity of one and the fall-off-the-table movement of the other -- also thrown by pitchers like Jhoan Duran and Paul Skenes. 

Boyle's version of the splinker, which he added to his arsenal this season, comes in at 93 mph with 29 inches of drop and 16 inches of run.  

He hasn't allowed a hit on the splinker this year. Opposing hitters are 0-for-13 against it with six strikeouts.

And in Boyle's mind, changing his release point is the reason his new splinker has been so good. 

"I don't know why, but I think it is," Boyle said. "Because I've tried this before from the higher slot, and it hasn't been the same. It just comes out a lot better, and the movement's more consistently good. Before, when I was higher, I'd throw like one good one and then nine bad ones. But I feel like now I can get, like, almost seven for 10 good ones." 

The more sidearm delivery also creates a much-needed movement profile for Boyle's splinker. His four-seamer stays mostly true, and his slider breaks to the glove side. The splinker is the only pitch he has that moves significantly to his arm side. 

Focusing on the splinker allowed Boyle to scrap his old curveball, which he said was too inconsistent, and his sweeper, which he said was good but had a movement direction too similar to his slider. A high-quality splinker offered more benefits, and he's reaping them with the Rays.

For the hitters in the box, it has to be very different facing 2025 Boyle than it was facing ‘23 Boyle. They're seeing new pitches coming out of a new release point. 

Boyle himself isn't sure exactly how that changes his stuff visually from the batter's perspective. But he likes it and the Rays love it, and that's enough to stick with it. 

"I'd have to talk to some hitters that I throw against -- but they say it looks pretty good," Boyle said. "And the team loves it from their perspective, so I'm just going to keep doing it."

There aren’t many home games on the horizon for the Rays, as they’re on the West Coast for a 12-game, four-city road trip. But when the team comes home for a five-game homestand against the Yankees and Cardinals later this month, why not take in a game from the First Base Rooftop?

Located down the right-field line, the rooftop is the only all-inclusive single-game ticket space in the ballpark. It features a set food menu as well as domestic draft beer, wine, soda and water. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis, and there’s plenty of standing room space. Learn more here.

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