The Chicago Cubs have suffered through waves of bad news when it comes to their starting rotation.
Projected fifth starter Javier Assad started off the ill tidings early in spring training with an oblique issue that put him on the shelf– and continues to keep him on the shelf.
Then, ace Justin Steele went down in early April, after just 4 starts, with an elbow injury that required season ending surgery. He’s not expected back until mid-2026 at the earliest.
A month later, co-ace Shota Imanaga went on the IL with a hamstring strain that kept him out of commission for about five weeks.
Most recently, Jameson Taillon got a bit of the bad mojo and suffered a right calf strain that, per Cubs manager Craig Counsell, will keep him off the mound for more than a month.
Overall, so far only 89 games into the campaign, 2025 has been brutal for Cubs starting pitching.
The pearl of the Chicago Cubs starting rotation
The one bright, shiny pearl in the pile of grimy oysters, however, has been lefty Matthew Boyd, who, as of this writing, is rocking a 2.65 ERA after 17 starts and just may have a real shot at making his first All-Star Game appearance.
The Cubs took a big gamble on the veteran free agent when they signed him to a 2-year, $29 million contract this past offseason. Boyd had just returned from 2023 Tommy John surgery and only managed to throw 51.1 innings total in 2024, combining regular season and postseason, for the Cleveland Guardians. In his last four seasons, suffering through assorted injuries, he had only posted a combined 202.2 innings and hadn’t pitched over 100 innings in a single season since 2019.
“We were very optimistic based on a very small sample, which is hard,” Jed Hoyer, Cubs president of baseball operations, recently told media “He pitched really well, obviously pitched in the playoffs. You never know exactly. He was a little bit of an unusual background…He’s certainly exceeded expectations for us.”
Exceeding expectations
Even after taking the gamble on signing him, expectations were understandably conservative when it came to what Boyd could contribute. At the time, many thought he was being brought in as a back-of-rotation replacement for the outgoing Kyle Hendricks.
“There’s definitely some risk/reward there,” Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said in a pre-season interview on 670 The Score in Chicago. “If we’re sitting here today and we say, ‘Matt Boyd throws 120 innings of really good baseball,’ I think we’d all be really happy about that. Anything above that would be great.”
But it appears that good fortune has blessed both the Cubs and Boyd. There also appears to be a bit of cosmic fate involved in the 34-year-old landing with the Cubs.
The Cubs, Boyd union as divine fate
Boyd’s beloved grandfather, who passed away in 2019, was an avid Cubs fan and based most of his baseball fandom around his Cubbies and his grandson.
“It’s pretty special to be here. It’s something that means a lot to me, to honor him like this,” Boyd told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. “Growing up, he was always talking about the Cubs, always. Like, I honestly think the happiest days of his life was when I debuted, and when the Cubs won the World Series. I remember being at my parents’ house for Game 7 watching on TV, and when they won, he called my dad and started crying.
“I always called him after my outings, too. And when we talked, sometime during the conversation I would hear about how the Cubs did that night. I’d tell him about my outing, and he’s say, ‘That’s great, but [former Cubs pitcher] Kyle Hendricks pitched great tonight, too.'”
Who knows where the Cubs would be right now without Matthew Boyd? The veteran has been a steadying presence in a rotation seemingly in constant crisis mode. Even with help via trade and injury recovery apparently on its way, the Cubs can’t afford to lose him.
