My Two Cents: Rays Pitcher Joe Boyle Takes Center Stage, This Time It's For Good

NEW YORK — We've talked all year about the Tampa Bay Rays riding their five-man rotation all season. Well, in the final days of July, things are finally changing.

Taj Bradley has been struggling of late, and the 24-year-old right-hander has lost his job with Tampa Bay. He was sent down to Triple-A Durham last week, and now Joe Boyle — who has been terrific in every role in 2025, both in the minors and the bigs — is taking his spot in the rotation. He gets his first start in the rotation — and second of the year — from the Rays when they take on the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in Tuesday night.

It's center stage, and Boyle, a 25-year-old who pitched collegiately at Notre Dame and was the best pitcher in Triple-A this season, is ready for all of it. Acquired from the Athletics in the offseason as part of the Jeffrey Springs trade, this will be his second appearance at Yankee Stadium. He pitched in 16 games with the A's in 2023-34, and he's made five appearances with the Rays this year, pitching 19 innings with a 1-0 record and 1.42 ERA, plus a crazy 0.63 WHIP.

So, yeah, bring on the Yankees. He's ready, even on the grandest of stages in all of baseball

“It’s great. It’s awesome there. You feed off of all that in a road game, 100 percent,'' the 6-foot-8 Boyle said during an interview over the weekend. :"Playing for the A’s, playing for the Rays, road games are so much different from home games. It’s a big crowd, big environment and you get used to it. It’s fun on the road. And once you get used to it, it feels normal. I'll be fine on Tuesday.''

Boyle has been waiting to be slid into the rotation all season. He's dominated at Durham, pitching 15 games. He started 14 and pitched behind an opener by design in the 15th game. He was 6-4 with a 1.85 ERA and had 96 strikeouts and 73 innings.

He made a start for the Rays in April, pitching five no-hit scoreless innings and then getting sent back down. He was called up again in early July and pitched behind Drew Rasmussen when the Rays were watching his innings. He pitched nine innings before the All-Star and five after, with a two-inning outing on July 18 and three innings five days later on July 23.

Boyle said he feels great physically, but he's also well aware that the Rays will monitor his pitch count since he hasn't pitched five innings or more since July 6.

“It probably won’t be the most I’ve thrown this season, I would imagine,'' Boyle said. "I’m prepared for five up and downs, and they’re going to make a decision based on how the game is going. It trust them to handle that.

“That little bit (out of the bullpen), it’s been good. I’m glad I went through that because you never know what the role is going to be. My arm feels good, by body feels good. It’s different up here, because everyone is so good. It’s definitely different from Triple-A, where you can get away with so much more. You can’t always do that here.’’

He's in the rotation now, and he's probably not going anywhere else.