Sean Boyle was selected by the Yankees in the 25th Round of the 2018 MLB Draft out of Dallas Baptist University, which already set his odds of becoming a big leaguer rather low. Add on a COVID-19 pandemic that completely wiped away the 2020 season, and suddenly Boyle was a 24-year-old prospect without any experience above Rookie ball.
The adversity wouldn’t stop there, as after two productive seasons in 2021 and 2022, the usually-reliable Boyle went from being a step away from the Major Leagues to having a catastrophic setback. He would undergo Tommy John Surgery during the 2023 season, missing the rest of that year and returning to the pros in July of last season.
He didn’t make the Yankees’ roster out of camp, getting assigned to MiLB camp near the start of Spring Training, but Sean Boyle had a chance to impress and he certainly did. Now that he’s back at the doorstep of the big leagues, Boyle takes us through the journey that has not only challenged him on the mound but as a person and competitor as well.
Why Sean Boyle Could Provide Sneaky Value For the Yankees in 2025
All lines in italics are quotes from Sean Boyle during our exclusive interview on Fireside Yankees
Sliders have always been at the forefront of Sean Boyle’s arsenal, as he developed his gyro slider back in high school and rode that pitch to a successful collegiate career. He believed that was the pitch that got him drafted by the Yankees, and through 26 outings with the organization from 2018-2019, it was the pitch that helped him sport a sub-4.00 ERA in short-season action. Changes inside the organization would shake up the way each pitcher was evaluated, as the Yankees brought in Pitching Coordinator Sam Briend to overhaul their development.
The COVID-19 season limited the organization’s ability to see some of their prospects in action as they lost the entire Minor League season in 2020, but the following offseason would provide more normal conditions for development. It looked like a normal day for Sean Boyle, but with just a week or two before Opening Day in 2021, he would throw a bullpen that changed him forever.
“Sam Briend is asking me about my slider…he says ‘Yea I don’t like that’, at that point my heart sunk this is the pitch that I’ve relied on my whole career… essentially my boss is telling me that it’s not going to cut it.”
Briend immediately offered a new grip and cue to Boyle, telling him to throw it like a curveball, and the first one he threw got a simple reaction from the Yankees’ esteemed pitching coordinator:
“Damn. Do that.”
The Yankees have always been good at developing sweepers, and Sean Boyle’s is one of the more underrated ones in their organization. During Spring Training this season, it’s averaged nearly 14 inches of sweep and is released from a wide release point, making that pitch even better. Wide release points with big sweepers can result in sharper horizontal approach angles, and when thrown either toward a lefty or away from a righty, it can result in some ugly swings like this:
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Sean Boyle had the batter so fooled he drilled them and still got a strikeout.
Nasty slider. pic.twitter.com/ffHXReMEzV
— Ryan Garcia (@RyanGarciaESM) March 1, 2025
“The intent behind it is definitely never to hit the guy, I got away with that one…when you get a result like that it’s almost affirmation…I kept him off balance he clearly didn’t know what the pitch was going to do and I got the result”
Keeping hitters off balance is Sean Boyle’s game; he can’t rear back and find 96 MPH, but that’s something that he’s been able to work around to create an arsenal capable of getting good hitters out. The sinker he throws has good two-plane movement as does his changeup, he has strong command of those weapons and still has that funky arm slot to play those pitches up.
Boyle talked about how his arsenal plays well off of each other and how that helps him even more, he can throw sinkers that move over a foot one way and sweepers that move over a foot in the opposite direction. While he doesn’t pop on the radar gun (and don’t get me wrong, velocity does matter), the right-hander doesn’t have a below-average arsenal in terms of pitch quality either.
Eno Sarris’ Stuff+ model grades Sean Boyle at 110.8, which is really good and a result of how much he can move the ball and how weird his release point is compared to the average right-handed pitcher. He covers multiple parts of the zone, but he seems ready to expand beyond his sinker-sweeper-changeup mix, as Boyle has experimented with a cutter and four-seamer. It seems the four-seamer is the one that’s gotten the most usage, and despite not having great movement on paper, we could see this pitch become a real weapon for him.
“I just mixed it in there, and then coaches were like ‘Hey that shape is actually not horrible’..it may not be a sexy pitch as it is but you put my stuff in a vacuum and you look at how it works off of each other, there’s a solid 10-12 inches of difference in the movement of this pitch…it’s gonna be a big pitch this year.”
When you look at his four-seamer this Spring, it averages between 12-13 inches of vertical movement while his changeup averages -4 inches of vertical movement. That’s over 16 inches of vertical separation off of those two pitches, and considering his low release height, those fastballs upstairs can be really effective. The opportunity to be both healthy again while looking as sharp as he has in camp certainly hasn’t gone unrecognized, and 2025 could end up being the year where Sean Boyle finally breaks into the big leagues.
As mentioned earlier, Boyle was selected in the 25th Round of the MLB Draft, a round that doesn’t exist anymore. A 28-year-old entering his eighth season of professional baseball, there are a lot of people who would have quit before getting to this point in their career. He underwent the painful rehab process, one that requires months of diligence just to be able to pitch again, knowing that the team could cut him loose at any point in time and that his return to the mound wouldn’t guarantee him a chance to pitch in the Major Leagues.
“The scariest thing to me was that thought of putting in all of this time and effort all this sacrifice…The scariest thing to me was that thought of putting in all of this time and effort all this sacrifice.“
This is where the interview felt like it went from a typical baseball conversation to a very real and honest conversation about risk and reward. Not everyone’s story will end with them penciling their name into MLB history as one of the select few who have played at the highest level the sport has to offer, but it’s why that process is so rewarding. The dream isn’t supposed to be real for Sean Boyle, nothing about a late-draft soft-tosser should result in a big-leaguer, and yet I find myself fully believing the stuff will play in the Major Leagues.
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Yankees prospect Sean Boyle had a 3.39 ERA in High-A this season
He just threw a seven inning no-hitter in his first start at Triple-A
— Farm To Fame (@FarmToFame_) August 20, 2021
What was also cool to hear was how Sean Boyle’s first interaction with a player after a live bullpen session earlier this Spring was with one of the best players on the planet:
“I get done with my live BP and who’s the first guy coming up to give me props, tell me good job, and great to see out there? Judge…he’s always gone out of his way to say hi to say ‘Sean how’re you doing, how’s the rehab coming along?’, I’ve never made a roster and never been in the big leagues but the captain of the New York Yankees is going out of a way to make a guy like me comfortable…that speaks a lot to what the culture is like in the locker room.”
This could be the year where his lack of MLB experience changes, the Yankees have a myriad of injuries on their pitching staff, and while Sean Boyle’s mentality has always been centered around what he can control, this opens the door for him to get a chance. The Yankees might need someone who can provide long-relief innings, and Boyle is certainly capable of pitching as either a starter or reliever. He might be best suited in that flexible role for the Yankees, and they’ll certainly need more pitchers than you’d expect to get through the season.
Sean Boyle isn’t your conventional prospect, but I believe there’s a future in the big leagues in store for him, and he’s laser-focused on making sure he pitches for the Yankees in the Bronx in 2025.
If you want the full interview, it’s right here on the Fireside Yankees YouTube page!