Detroit Tigers: Matthew Boyd battling through summer slump
By Brad Faber
After cruising through the first couple months of the season, Detroit Tigers left-hander Matthew Boyd has hit a rough patch.
In the not-so-distant past, Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Matthew Boyd was mentioned as a possible trade candidate. In mid-June, Jon Paul Morosi of MLB.com claimed that Boyd was “one of the Tigers’ most coveted players in trade talks.” Morosi named the Seattle Mariners as team that was interested.
Boyd, who the Tigers acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays in July of 2015, struggled throughout much of his early career. However, he appeared to turn over a new leaf at the end of last season. He nearly pitched a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox, and posted an overall ERA of 2.95 over six starts in September.
Boyd carried that success into this season, posting a sparkling 3.23 ERA over his first 13 starts. Over his last five starts, however, he posted a 9.78 ERA. On the season, he is now 4-8 with a 4.76 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. Despite his recent struggles, however, he still ranks third among Tigers starters with a 1.3 fWAR. He trails only Michael Fulmer and Jordan Zimmermann, who have each have a 1.6 fWAR at the moment.
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To be fair, he had made one quality start during this stretch, pitching six innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out seven against the Blue Jays on June 30. He also recorded eight strikeouts in his most recent start. For the most part, though, Boyd has been looking a lot more like the pitcher he was pre-September 2017 in his last handful of outings.
Although it has only been a few rough starts, it should be interesting to see if Boyd’s recent struggles might make him a less attractive trade target. Of course, even though there was interest, it wasn’t a given that he would have been traded even if he had continued to pitch they way he had earlier on this year.
The Tigers have a couple of other pitchers, specifically Mike Fiers and Francisco Liriano, who could make more sense for teams that might be in search of starting pitching.
Fiers has been a very pleasant surprise for the Tigers this season, going 6-6 with a 3.70 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP over a pretty big sample size of 18 starts. That said, Fiers is arbitration eligible this offseason, and given the way he has been pitching lately, perhaps the Tigers may want him to be a part of their rotation in 2019.
Liriano got off to a great start this season, but spent time on the disabled list and has struggled since his return. He is now 3-5 with a 4.74 ERA and a 1.41 WHIP.
Still, both Fiers and Liriano would be relatively low-risk and make sense for teams who are looking to add a middle-to-back-end-of-the-rotation starter.
The Tigers also have Fulmer, but he may be tough to deal as well. Fulmer is still stuck in a bit of a down year, going 3-8 with a 4.11 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP through his first 18 starts. His value may not be at its highest right now. Fulmer and Boyd are both controllable through the 2022 season.
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Time will tell, but it may make more sense for the Detroit Tigers to keep Boyd, let him work through his current struggles and let him be part of the part of the rebuilding process for now.