Ben Joyce Is Back, With More Than a Radar-Gun Story

Two brothers and one well-used ballfield

The present-day Joyce is listed at 6 feet 5 inches and 225 pounds. The high-school version looked nothing like a future power pitcher. MLB's draft profile says he entered Farragut High at roughly 5 feet 4 inches and 100 pounds; The Washington Post reported that his freshman fastball sat around 65 mph. He grew rapidly, played at Walters State Community College and later transferred to Tennessee. The journey was not a straight prospect conveyor belt. It was two undersized twins trying to make the high-school team, then staying around the field whenever they could.

That detail matters because 105.5 can make a person seem assembled in a pitching laboratory. Joyce was not. He was a late bloomer who kept adding strength, cleaned up his delivery at Tennessee and completed a finance degree in May 2022. The spectacular part arrived after the ordinary parts: school, repetition, a junior-college stop and a brother close enough in appearance that their high-school coach simply remembered them together as "those guys."

Tennessee got the full carnival act

On May 1, 2022, Joyce delivered four relief innings in Tennessee's 5-3 win over Auburn. He struck out six, allowed one hit and reached 105.5 mph. The university's game account logged 28 pitches at 103 mph or faster, 15 at 104 or faster and three at 105 or faster. That is not a typo tucked into a stat table. It is an inning-by-inning procession of readings that would be a career highlight for almost anyone else.

His lone Tennessee season ended with a 2.23 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 32 1/3 innings. The nickname "Volunteer Fireman" followed, an especially tidy fit for a reliever in orange. Attention followed too. The Post reported that Joyce used some of his new visibility to raise money for a children's hospital, while the volume of notifications became large enough that he switched them off. Fame, in this case, arrived sounding like a phone that would not stop buzzing.

From the third round to a big-league souvenir

The Angels selected Joyce with the 89th pick on July 18, 2022. They sent him directly to Double-A Rocket City for his first professional assignment, an aggressive placement for a player with so few college innings. Less than a year after the draft, he reached the majors. His debut came at Chicago on May 29, 2023, with Los Angeles protecting a one-run lead in the seventh.

He threw 10 of 12 pitches for strikes, struck out two and completed a scoreless inning. Eleven pitches were sinkers; the other was a cutter. His family was in the ballpark, and the Angels gave him the lineup card afterward. That cardboard keepsake is the humane counterweight to all the glowing digits. A debut can be charted in velocity and strike percentage, but somebody still carries the lineup card home.

The 2024 version became a late-inning answer

Joyce's best full major-league season so far came in 2024. He posted a 2.08 ERA across 31 appearances and earned four saves. On August 3, he collected the first of his career by retiring all four Mets he faced. The final pitch was a 104.7 mph fastball that struck out J.D. Martinez. Exactly one month later, he went faster.

On September 3, Joyce fired 105.5 mph past the Dodgers' Tommy Edman for a strikeout. At the time, only two tracked pitches, both by Aroldis Chapman, had been faster since pitch tracking began in 2008. Jacob Misiorowski matched Joyce's mark in June 2026, so Joyce now shares the third-fastest spot. The loveliest beat in MLB's account came after the ball hit the catcher's mitt: Joyce looked toward the scoreboard, saw the number and smiled on his walk back to the dugout. Of course he did.

Four innings are a beginning, not a verdict

Joyce made only five major-league appearances in 2025. The Angels activated him on August 4, 2026, and the early return has been clean: four appearances, four innings, one hit, one walk, four strikeouts and no runs through August 12, according to Baseball Savant. The sample is tiny. It would be silly to turn four innings into a sweeping forecast, particularly for a reliever whose recent seasons have been interrupted.

It is fair, though, to enjoy what has actually happened. Texas sent three hitters to the plate in the ninth on August 12. Joyce retired all three on 12 pitches, eight for strikes, preserving a 5-2 Angels win. A popout, a called strikeout and a flyout do not make the noise of 105.5. They make something a bullpen values more: a quiet ninth.

The number opens the door

Joyce will remain searchable because humans are helpless before an absurd number. Still, his official Angels biography keeps a gentler item beside the strikeouts and draft history: on June 18, 2024, he joined a Rally Readers event at Anaheim Public Library's Central Branch and read to local children. The pitcher who makes a baseball hurry also knows how to sit with a book. That is a fine final image, and one no radar gun could have found.