Despite undergoing knee surgery for a meniscus injury, the veteran southpaw is projected for a speedy return to the rotation well before the mid-season All-Star break.
The Chicago Cubs received some unfortunate news before Wednesday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds.
It was announced that starting pitcher Matthew Boyd injured his meniscus and will be out for the foreseeable future. The left-hander reportedly injured his meniscus while playing with his kids.
But the Cubs have received some good news after Boyd underwent left knee meniscectomy surgery. The expectation is that the southpaw will only miss about six weeks and should return well before the All-Star break.
“We know he’s going to miss the month, six weeks,” manager Craig Counsell told reporters before Thursday’s game. “It’s probably closer to six weeks with getting him ramped back up. That’s what we’re hopeful for. Obviously, we’ll see how it all goes. I think the important thing is how much time do we miss of throwing. That’s probably the biggest thing here. The knee’s going to recover pretty quickly, but how much throwing down time do we have to take?”
Boyd missing around six weeks is definitely encouraging for the Cubs. This surgery was a partial repair of his meniscus, and Counsell reiterated to reporters this was a “minor” surgery.
Assuming Boyd recovers well from his meniscus surgery and suffers no setbacks between now and the six-week recovery timeline, he should return to the team sometime toward the end of June. The week of June 22 could be when the Cubs welcome him back.
The veteran left-hander struggled a bit in the early going, as he owned a 6.00 ERA, a 1.292 WHIP, and 31 strikeouts across 24 innings pitched before landing on the 15-day injured list. He also spent almost three weeks on the IL last month due to a left bicep strain.
However, Boyd was starting to get into a groove on the mound. He just put together his best start of the season in his last outing on Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The veteran threw six innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts and earned his first quality start of the year.
With Boyd down for the next six weeks, Javier Assad should find his way back in the rotation. Assad made three starts for the Cubs in April, where he had a 5.74 ERA and nine strikeouts across 15 ⅔ innings.
The right-hander had two really good starts and one poor start while filling in for Boyd in early April. He threw 5 ⅔ shutout innings against the Rays on April 7, gave up nine runs on 11 hits across 4 ⅓ innings against the Phillies on April 13, and then threw 5 ⅔ innings of one-run ball against the Mets on April 19.
Assad is a quality replacement in Chicago’s rotation until Boyd returns. The good news is that the southpaw is expected to be back before the All-Star break.