Detroit Tigers: Are Matthew Boyd’s best days long gone?

The Detroit Tigers are so close to the end of the season. The 162-game run is nearing an end, but not without some last-minute souring news to dampen the mood. Overall the 2021 season has been enjoyable to an extent for Tigers fans, but recent news pushes otherwise.

Detroit Tigers’ left-handed pitcher Matthew Boyd will not be suiting up for the rest of 2021 and will likely be on the shelf past the start of the 2022 season. The team is going to have to start letting guys like Casey Mize, Matt Manning, and Tarik Skubal grab the bull by the horns in the rotation.

While Mize has all the makings of being an ace, Boyd has assumed that role in the recent past. The 2021 season being an exception, given Boyd has had a lot of time spent on the Injured List (IL) as he battled some arm issues.

It has since been realized and announced that Boyd’s problems were more extensive than arm fatigue, soreness, or any of the lightly put diagnoses. Boyd is going to undergo surgery on his flexor tendon, which is going to keep him off the field for 6-9 months while he recovers.

Detroit Tigers pitcher Matthew Boyd may have seen his best days pass by.

In 2021, when Boyd was healthy enough to pitch, he logged 15 starts in total. He posted a 3-8 record where he accumulated 78.2 innings pitched while posting a 3.89 ERA, a 1.27 WHIP, and punched out 67 hitters.

He may not have looked like he did in the first half of 2019, but Boyd was not too shabby when he was healthy. The issue was maintaining a clean bill of health, and the lingering arm issues are problematic.

While the idea of moving him to a bullpen role is likely not all that shocking, it seems even more likely for his future, given the surgery announcement. It’s not to say he’s bound for the bullpen in 2022, but his days of starting are going to be in jeopardy, depending on how he recovers from this incident.

The thing that is the most worrisome is the timetable. While 6-9 months seems to be the sweet spot, some players require more, and even after being cleared after 6-9 months, they have lingering shoulder issues.

That being said, the fear for Boyd to continue to have issues has to be there, and there has to be some worry in regards to his performance and how it could change based on his surgery recovery.

It’s not to say that he cannot bounce back healthy in six months and be back to being a solid contributor to this team’s rotation, but the cards do seem to be stacked against him.

Tigers fans should cross their fingers and hope for the best when it comes to Boyd and his future.