Matthew Boyd to start for Guardians on Tuesday

The Cleveland Guardians will have another new face making their team debut. Guardians manager Stephen Vogt announced that Matthew Boyd will be Tuesday's starter against the visiting Chicago Cubs. This will be Boyd's first major league start since last season during his second stint with the Detroit Tigers.

Boyd has been working his way up through Cleveland's minor league system since being signed earlier this year, making five starts across various levels of competition. In 21.2 innings, Boyd has a 0.83 ERA, 0.646 WHIP, and 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings while working his way back from last year's season-ending injury.

While some detractors will point out that it came against non-major league competition, the fact Boyd was able to absolutely dominate is encouraging. The expectation for a major league pitcher in the minors is for them to go out and pitch at a very high level, and he was able to do just that. While it does not necessarily mean he will be successful on Tuesday or any other subsequent appearances he makes for the Guardians, the prospect of him pitching for Cleveland would be worrisome if he was not able to pitch like he did leading up to Tuesday.

Granted, there is a difference between facing minor and major-league hitters, but that does not mean what he did can be disregarded entirely. Boyd was still able to pitch well and strike out 27 batters compared to walking just two. Being able to limit free passes while commanding his pitches is promising and should help in his return to the bigs.

Signing Boyd was very much a move made out of necessity. Cleveland's front office knew the rotation issues they were going to face later in the season after losing Shane Bieber for the year. Going out and bringing Boyd into the fold is not necessarily the most exciting move, but the potential reward, if it pays off, will be well worth it.