Los Angeles Angels: 5 trade options for rotation help
By Phil Watson
Matthew Boyd, LHP, Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers didn’t aggressively shop lefthander Matthew Boyd over the winter, according to Chris McCosky of the Detroit News, but as Jason Beck of MLB.com reported in January, the club also wasn’t able to come to any sort of long-term deal for Boyd, either.
Boyd did sign a one-year, $5.3 million deal to avoid arbitration, but can’t be a free agent until 2023. Boyd was a sixth-round pick by the Toronto Blue Jays from Oregon State University in 2013 and came to the Tigers in the July 2015 trade for David Price.
Boyd has started 116 games since being acquired by Detroit, including a career-high 32 last season. In 185.1 innings, the 29-year-old posted a 4.56 ERA and 1.230 WHIP with 238 strikeouts and 50 walks, while allowing an American League-high 39 home runs.
The strikeout total was a career-high, as was his 11.6 strikeouts per nine innings, which was a massive spike over the 8.4 per nine Boyd registered in 2018. But at 29, he’s also not brimming with upside and has never shown he has the repertoire to lead a rotation, or even come close to that.