Recovery from Tommy John surgery can be lonely, grueling and, seemingly, never-ending.

Going through it as a free agent with no clear path to a return to the majors should have made it daunting.

Instead, Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd chose to look at the positives of the situation he was in a year ago. His positive, uplifting personality was on full display immediately in camp and that helped him through what could have been a mentally draining period.

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He had the opportunity to be a dad — he was around his wife and children more than he normally would have been if he were healthy and pitching in the big leagues.

“I wouldn’t wish [Tommy John surgery] upon anybody,” Boyd said earlier in Cubs camp. “But there was a lot of ownership and responsibility with it and it came with a lot of blessing about being with my family every day, morning and night.

“In the season, you don’t get to do both of those things most of the time — waking up with the kids and putting them to bed and coaching them in T-ball.”

All the while, Boyd attacked his rehab from Tommy John surgery that he had underwent in 2023 as a member of the Tigers.

“I think the biggest thing is that you don’t feel the same when you first come back,” Boyd said. “You feel healthy, but then there’s that, like, I’m learning to ride a bike because I haven’t ridden it in 500 days or whatever.

“It’s a weird analogy, but like that’s what’s essentially happening.”

The metaphorical pedals began to turn a little bit faster and with it, the results. That led the Cleveland Guardians to take a chance on him, signing him to a major-league deal to complete his rehab and try and help their major-league rotation as they chased a run in October.

On Aug. 13 — against his eventual future team — he finally returned and looked sharp in doing so. Boyd tossed 5.1 innings of 1 run ball on 3 hits with 6 strikeouts against the Cubs. He would go on to make 7 more starts and compile a 2.72 ERA in 39.2 innings. But, he felt, that didn’t tell the full story.

“Those were really fun opportunities because they’re challenges. Because with every day that passes, those are more reps and I feel better and better and better,” Boyd said. “The more you get removed from the surgery date, the more reps happen, you acquire a new skill and whatnot. It’s a process. There’s so much more than meets the eye.

“Numbers on the board are never indicative of how you feel with your game. But it gives you a lot of confidence. I was like, ‘Hey, I’m healthy.’”

After the Guardians’ playoff run where he developed into their de-facto ace, Boyd hit the free agent market again, this time with success post-surgery in the big leagues and it netted him a 2-year deal with the Cubs.

Boyd and pitching coach Tommy Hottovy hope that small sample in 2024 is a precursor to who he is now as a pitcher, even at age 34. After all, Boyd had overcome the hardest part of the rehab process — the first year after the operation.

The body has to be retrained to pitch throughout an offseason and regular season, then you have to compete at the highest level. That next offseason — in Boyd’s case, this past winter — allows thing to normalize a bit.

“Then you have a complete offseason,” Hottovy said. “You actually can let your body kind of calm down and heal. So, I think right now, he’s in a really good place.

“Now, the key is that he feels good, not falling back in this rehab mode where I need to do X, Y, Z to feel good. He feels good. Now it’s, ‘OK what do I need to do to be ready for Opening Day?’”

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And Boyd is ready to show he can be a key contributor in the Cubs’ rotation or wherever else he may be needed.

“I think what really the last few years have done has been like, ‘Hey, I don’t know what the need is, but I know when the ball’s in my hand, I know what I’m gonna do,’” Boyd said. “Despite what everyone else thinks of me, all I need is a chance. Just give me the chance.

“It feels great to be wanted, and this is a place where I wanted to be. For that, I am so grateful for. I feel so blessed in that sense.”