Matthew Boyd

BIOGRAPHY

Matthew Boyd was born February 2, 1991, in Mercer Island, Washington. He is a pitcher in the MLB.

He played college baseball for Oregon State University. In the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft, the Blue Jays selected Boyd in the 6th round. He made his MLB debut with the Blue Jays in 2015.

Boyd set career highs in 2018 with 31 starts and 170+1⁄3 innings pitched, posting a 9–13 record with a 4.39 ERA and 159 strikeouts. He allowed only 146 hits during the season, his 7.714 hits per nine innings ranked 10th among qualified American League starters.

On January 11, 2019, the Tigers avoided arbitration with Boyd, agreeing on a one-year, $2.6 million contract. Boyd posted 10 strikeouts in his first start of the season. In his next start on April 3 against the New York Yankees, Boyd recorded a career-high 13 strikeouts, becoming the first Tigers pitcher since 1908 to start the season with consecutive double-digit strikeout games. Boyd also set a record for the most strikeouts by a visiting pitcher at the current Yankee Stadium. His 13 strikeouts were the most by any Tigers pitcher since Max Scherzer recorded 14 in August 2014. On July 4 against the Chicago White Sox, Boyd became the first pitcher in the live-ball era to record 13 strikeouts and zero walks in an appearance of six innings or fewer. He finished the first half of the season with 142 strikeouts, the most strikeouts by a Tigers left-handed pitcher prior to the All-Star break since Mickey Lolich struck out 156 in 1972. On August 18, Boyd became the first Tiger pitcher to top 200 strikeouts since Justin Verlander in 2016, and the first left-handed Tiger to do so since Mickey Lolich in 1974. In 2019, he struck out 238 batters in 185+1⁄3 innings for a stellar 11.6/9 IP strikeout rate, but he also had the worst home runs/9 IP ratio among major league starters, at 1.89. His 39 home runs allowed led the American League. Boyd finished the season 9–12 with a 4.56 ERA.

On March 20, 2022, Boyd finalized a deal with the San Francisco Giants on a one-year contract worth $5.2 million. 

On August 2, 2022, Boyd and Curt Casali were traded to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for Michael Stryffeler and Andy Thomas. He made his Mariners debut against the Detroit Tigers on August 2, pitching a scoreless 8th inning.