News: Matthew Boyd’s time with the Detroit Tigers is likely done

It may not be Wednesday, but in two days on December 1st, it seems that the Detroit Tigers will be parting ways with one of their veteran starting pitchers, Matthew Boyd. It was reported that the two sides could not come to an agreement on a contract.

That being said, since no deal was reached, he will be non-tendered and become a free agent as of December 1st, 2021, which is the non-tender deadline. The direction the Detroit Tigers are moving seems to be one without Boyd as a part of their pitching staff.

Boyd has plainly not been the pitcher he once was with the Tigers and the team is going to start moving in a new direction and push towards this new era of Tigers baseball. While some may view Tarik Skubal as the “replacement” of Boyd as the southpaw of this rotation, the team brought in another this offseason.

Earlier in the month, the Detroit Tigers brought in Eduardo Rodriguez on a five-year contract to be a sustainable and quality left-handed option at the front of the rotation. That being said, it seems that the Tigers felt that Boyd no longer fit the mold for what the Tigers are building.

The Detroit Tigers and Matthew Boyd are parting ways.

Rather than sticking around in a relief role, the 30-year old southpaw likely asked to be non-tendered to test the free-agent market. He may not be coming off the smoothest of seasons, but Boyd believes in himself and his stuff and will want to see if other teams might buy into his self-belief.

In 2021, Boyd would pitch in 15 starts after injury troubles would come into play once again for him. It was a lot of missing time for soreness and tightness, but it added up. He logged 78.2 innings of work over his 15 starts where he posted a 3.89 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP.

It was good to see him bounce back from his 2020 performance, but he has not been the same player he was back in the first half of the 2019 season. After seven seasons with the Tigers organization, Boyd is going to be hitting the open market.

It seems like it was just one of those situations where the Tigers felt that Boyd was no longer going to fit the direction they were moving with him in the rotation. I would suspect he was offered a bullpen role with a shot at the fourth spot in the rotation, but he would decline and ask to be non-tendered.

As the offseason heads on, best of luck to Boyd as he looks for a new home in the big leagues. I bet Avila is kicking himself for not pulling the trigger on the many trade offers that were reported over the years when Boyd was a “coveted” trade deadline piece.