Matthew Boyd

In 2019, Boyd took a major step forward in his K rate mostly on the back of his slider. However, Boyd’s fastball gained some velocity and he generated much less contact off it as well. He notably was home run prone allowing 23 dingers off this pitch.

Boyd’s reworked slider was a resounding success last year. It was still damn good this year but hitters got a bit more out of it. A solid 20.3% SwStr and 41.8 K% kept it in the elite range despite giving up a couple more homers and extra base hits. It lost a bit of velocity but there is no reason he shouldn’t continue to have success with it thanks to its 46 inches of vertical movement, a good 2.3 inches better than average.

Boyd takes a lot off for his change up for a velocity difference of over 10 mph with his fastball. His change performed much better in 2019 with much less contact and less extra base hits.

Boyd uses a big hook for his fourth pitch which is not as good as his other off speed stuff. However, he took a step forward with this pitch gettiing more whiffs. The main problem he had was allowing too many home runs off of it.