<p>DENVER — Matthew Boyd’s return from the injured list was supposed to be a boost for a banged-up <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/cubs" >Cubs</a> rotation.</p><p>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.</p><p>“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.”</p><p>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.</p><p>In fact, Boyd was essentially set to replace fellow veteran Jameson Taillon in the rotation after the righty suffered a hamstring strain that will <a class="Link" href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/cubs/2026/06/09/cubs-jameson-taillon-injury-starting-pitching-rotation-injured-list-matthew-boyd-matt-shaw-craig-counsell" >keep him out until after the All-Star break</a>.</p><p>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.</p><p>“It’s not ideal,” Boyd said of the injury issues in the Cubs’ rotation.