Matthew Robert Boyd (born February 2, 1991) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners.
Boyd played college baseball for Oregon State University. In the 2013 MLB draft, the Blue Jays selected Boyd in the sixth round. He made his MLB debut with the Blue Jays in 2015 and was traded to Detroit during the season. He played for the Tigers through the 2021 season and played for Seattle in 2022.
Amateur career
A native of Mercer Island, Washington, Boyd played his freshman high school season at Mercer Island High School before transferring to Eastside Catholic School in Sammamish, Washington. He graduated from Oregon State University, where he played college baseball for the Oregon State Beavers for four years. In 2011 and 2012, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Orleans Firebirds of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and was named a league all-star in 2012. In the 2012 Major League Baseball draft, the Cincinnati Reds selected Boyd in the 13th round, but he did not sign.
Professional career
Early and minor league career
In the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft, the Toronto Blue Jays selected Boyd in the sixth round. He signed, receiving a $75,000 signing bonus.
Boyd was initially assigned to the Class-A Lansing Lugnuts, where he recorded a 0.64 earned run average in 14 innings before being promoted to the Advanced-A Dunedin Blue Jays, where he spent the remainder of the 2013 season. He posted an 0–2 record in Dunedin with a 5.40 ERA in 10 innings pitched. In 2014, Boyd pitched 90 innings with Dunedin, earning a 5–3 record, 1.39 ERA, and 103 strikeouts before earning a promotion to the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats. He struggled in his first trip to New Hampshire, pitching to a 1–4 record, 6.96 ERA, and 44 strikeouts in 42 innings. Through his first nine starts with the Fisher Cats in 2015, Boyd led the league in both ERA (1.05) and strikeouts (56). He was promoted to the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons in June 2015 and made his first start on June 14 against the Charlotte Knights. Boyd took the loss, yielding two runs (one earned) with eight strikeouts and no walks in seven innings pitched for the Bisons. At the time of his call-up, he was considered the No. 19 prospect in the Blue Jays organization by MLB.
Toronto Blue Jays
On June 26, 2015, Boyd was called up by the Blue Jays to start against the Texas Rangers the following day. He pitched 6 innings against the Rangers and took the loss, yielding 4 runs while striking out 7. Boyd's 7 strikeouts tied the Blue Jays franchise record for strikeouts in a debut.
Despite having pitched 6.2 innings for the Blue Jays in 2015, the Blue Jays (who made the 2015 ALDS playoffs) elected to not award Boyd any money from the available pool of playoff share funds. This money is distributed amongst the team and staff; typically, players who were traded or released through the year are awarded partial shares or grants from the playoff pool. Although Boyd was shut out, monetary grants were awarded to several other Blue Jays players whose contributions were minimal, including Phil Coke (2.2 innings pitched), Colt Hynes (3.0 innings pitched), and Chad Jenkins (3.2 innings pitched).
Detroit Tigers
2015
On July 30, 2015, the Blue Jays traded Boyd, Daniel Norris and Jairo Labourt to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for David Price. He was assigned to the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. Boyd was recalled by the Tigers on August 5. Before being recalled, Boyd posted a 9–2 record and a 1.65 ERA in 19 starts between Double-A New Hampshire, Triple-A Buffalo and Toledo. In his debut for the Tigers on August 5, Boyd pitched seven innings, allowing seven hits, and one earned run, with two strikeouts, and no walks, earning his first career major league win, in a 2–1 Tigers victory over the Kansas City Royals.