Angels promote Ben Joyce, 2022 draft pick with triple-digit fastball velocity, to majors for MLB debut

The Los Angeles Angels have promoted right-handed reliever Ben Joyce from Double-A to the majors, the team announced Sunday. Joyce will replace veteran lefty Matt Moore on the active roster after Moore suffered a strained oblique.

Joyce, 22, was selected by the Angels in the third round of the 2022 draft. He had gained national acclaim, or at least as much as a collegiate reliever can, during his time at Tennessee by pumping triple-digit-velocity heaters. Here’s what CBS Sports wrote about him last summer, all the while noting that he “would seem to be one of the safest bets to become the first player from this class to reach the majors.”

Joyce has a monster fastball and slider, with 43 of the former checking in at 100 mph or above during the NCAA tournament. (He topped out at, um, 105 mph during the regular season.) His heater also features good rise and is delivered from a lower arm slot, a sought-after combination these days. Teams who attempt to quantify stuff—i.e., all of them—are going to have trouble containing their excitement at what Joyce brings to the table. He’s on here anyway because there’s never been a consensus on how early is too early to take a reliever, and because teams will have drastically different timetables on when they’d expect him to reach the majors. Keep in mind, he’s thrown just 32 innings over the last two seasons due to his role and his past Tommy John surgery. A team who thinks he could reach the majors soon, perhaps even this year, might be tempted to draft him earlier than anyone else would entertain.