DENVER — Matthew Boyd’s return from the injured list was supposed to be a boost for a banged-up Cubs rotation.
Instead, the team will slow down their Opening Day starter’s comeback, and he won’t make a start this weekend in San Francisco after experiencing shoulder soreness during his bullpen session Tuesday in Colorado.
“We’re going to back off him for a couple days,” manager Craig Counsell said. “We’re hoping that it’s minor and we can get him back on the mound quickly. But he threw his bullpen, he hasn’t recovered the way he needs to recover, so we’re going to have to take some time.”
The left-hander Boyd was on the doorstep of returning from more than a month on the shelf while recovering from knee surgery, one of a litany of critical absences by Cubs starters just two and a half months into the season.
In fact, Boyd was essentially set to replace fellow veteran Jameson Taillon in the rotation after the righty suffered a hamstring strain that will keep him out until after the All-Star break.
Now the replacement will need a replacement, with Javier Assad — the right-hander who relieved Taillon after his early exit Sunday — likely to get the start Boyd was meant to make this weekend against the Giants.
“It’s not ideal,” Boyd said of the injury issues in the Cubs’ rotation. “You don’t want to go through it. It doesn’t matter as much what happens, it’s how you respond. The only thing that we have control over is our response.
“I know what that response is for me: It’s continuing to do everything I can, brick by brick, to get back on that mound. … It’s the hand that’s been dealt, so we have to adjust and we have to keep going.”
Boyd’s road back to the active roster now requires a few more bricks.
“I want to be back. I wanted to be back the day after surgery,” Boyd said. “It’s [a result of the increased] workload. Obviously, you see the check-engine light that comes on yesterday. But you look back at the week before, and it’s like, ‘Maybe I should have limited my workload a little more.’
“That’s no one’s fault but my own. There was a prescribed plan, I was just feeling so good working through things. There’s something to be said about letting low days be low days.”
As for Assad, he’ll be the latest fill-in option in a season full of them for the Cubs, who have seen both the good and bad of that necessity. Right-hander Ben Brown, for instance, has shone and is making an All-Star case. Other would-be solutions haven’t gone as well: Righty Colin Rea has an ERA north of 5.00, while lefty Jordan Wicks was quickly dispatched back to the minors after a pair of uninspiring outings.
Boyd, an All Star last season, figures to be a stabilizing force every fifth day once he returns. In his absence, Cubs starters have struggled. Coming into Wednesday, they boasted a 6.08 ERA since May 4, the day after Boyd’s most recent start, the second worst mark in the majors in that span.
Though Assad’s ERA was nearly 6.00 prior to his 6⅓ shutout innings Sunday, his woeful numbers prior to a mid May trip to the minor leagues were mostly the result of a pair of rough outings in which he allowed a combined 15 runs. Outside of those two appearances, he’s allowed two runs this season.
“You’ve always got to be ready to help the team,” Assad, through an interpreter, told the Sun-Times on Tuesday. “Whether it’s one inning, five innings, six innings, whatever it is, you’ve always got to be ready to help the team.
“I’m just waiting for any opportunity, right? Whenever you get that opportunity, you’re always happy to be called upon and make the most out of it and go out there and give it my absolute best.”
