Former Tennessee Vols flamethrower Ben Joyce has turned a big corner in the major leagues

With the kind of arm talent that Ben Joyce has, it was going to just be a matter of time before the former standout for the Tennessee Vols developed into a force out of the bullpen.  It looks like that time came in 2024.

Joyce has turned in one of the best months for a reliever heading into the All-Star break among anyone in baseball, and it was evident last night in helping the Los Angeles Angels hold on for a 2-1 win over the first-place Seattle Mariners.  Joyce struck out all three outs he recorded in a scoreless seventh inning.

Joyce has been supplementing his 103-mph fastball with a filthy variation of a split-finger fastball and a sinker, or a "splinker" , that dives away from hitters at 97 miles per hour.  Then add in a slower diving slider and one of the fastest fastballs in the league, and batters are going to almost have to rely on luck in order to run into one and get on base.

Joyce returned to the majors in early June and started off with a scoreless outing against Detroit.  However, he allowed a combined five earned runs in his next two appearances in losses to Houston and Arizona on June 8 and 11.  Since then?  Zero earned runs allowed over 11 appearances and 14.1 innings.   For the season, he's struck out 16 and walked just 6 in 16.1 innings of work with a 2.76 ERA.

Joyce certainly has the kind of stuff to make a team drool (we'll see what happens at the trade deadline since the Angels are effectively out of playoff contention), and it's become apparent that he's worked on the thing that separates top-end relievers from the rest: control.  If he can continue to showcase the accuracy with his pitches that he has over the last month, then the sky is the limit for the former Vol in the big leagues.

Related: Former Tennessee Vol is tearing up the minor leagues for one of the biggest franchises in baseball