The A's acquired Joe Boyle at the 2023 Trade Deadline in exchange for Sam Moll. At the time of the deal, Boyle was walking 19.4% of the batters he faced in Double-A in the Cincinnati Reds system. He climbed through the A's system and made his big-league debut in Oakland in the middle of September and earned three starts to close out the season. He finished with a 1.69 ERA in 16 innings, gave up just eight hits, struck out 15, and walked 8.3% of the hitters he saw.
This small sample size is providing a lot of hope that the A's may have something big on their hands. The 6-foot-7 right-hander heads into Spring Training as one of the favorites to land a spot in the rotation, wielding a heater that sits 98.
Part of the reason for his success with Oakland was that his pitch mix is truly elite. According to the Stuff+ stat over at FanGraphs, Boyle ranked 14th among all pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched. Some of the names ahead of him: Jacob deGrom, Ryan Pressly, Emmanuel Clase, Bryan Abreu, Paul Sewald, Félix Bautista, and Aroldis Chapman. deGrom is the only starter ahead of him, while the other 12 pitchers are all high-end relievers.
Boyle is probably not the next deGrom, but he could be a weapon for the A's if he can stick in the rotation. Instead of pitching the ninth, he could potentially provide five or six innings every fifth day.
Baseball America believes that his floor as a prospect (#8 in the A's system) of a high-leverage reliever if his strike-throwing reverts back to what it once was. That fastball accounted for 58% of his pitches with the A's last season, followed by his slider at 32%, a curve at 10%. In his third and final start, he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Angels, and it was also the game in which he mixed his pitches the most.
Adding to the belief that he could be a solid back-end reliever, Boyle's slider had the highest whiff rate of any of his pitches at 32.3%. A fastball/slider combo is an effective mix among relievers in today's game. Boyle's fastball has a stuff+ rating of 120 (100 is league average) while his slider has a rating of 126. It's actually Boyle's curveball that had the best rating at 142, giving him three nasty pitches.
If he can work on his command of these three pitches, then the sky may in fact be the limit for the 24-year-old. The curveball held a 92 location+ rating, 8% below league average, while the slider seemed to be the one he had the best feel for with a 114 location+ rating. The heater was exactly league average at 100. With that command of his fastball and slider, he could be an elite reliever tomorrow. Yet, if he can make it work as a starter, he's going to become must-see tv for years to come.
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