Sitting in the left-field bleachers on Monday night, I felt pretty good. The Chicago Cubs returned home on the heels of yet another series win and Matthew Boyd was on the bump against a San Francisco Giants team that has been sneaky good so far this year.
Suffice to say, I was not disappointed. Boyd turned in another gem: six innings of two-run ball in which he punched out seven and did not walk a batter. His 2.75 ERA on the year might not lead the league, but it’s certainly nothing to turn your nose up at, either, falling roughly in line with teammate Shota Imanaga, who is widely considered one of the most effective starters in the league.
Matthew Boyd has been a savior for the Cubs in the early going
The Cubs turned some heads – and not all of them in a good way – when they pounced last fall, bringing Boyd in on a two-year, $29 million deal. For a team needing front-of-the-rotation firepower, it felt like an opportunistic gamble, at best, given his checkered injury history. But he’s delivered in resounding fashion, helping keep the team’s rotation afloat amidst a number of big injuries.
Ace Justin Steele is done for the year after just four starts. Javier Assad was close to re-joining the team, working through his rehab assignment before re-injuring his oblique and recently being placed on the 60-day IL. You can’t count on him throwing a meaningful pitch in the first half of the season.
Last, but certainly not least, Imanaga hit the injured list with a left hamstring strain that doesn’t seem too serious, but it’s still another loss to weather for Craig Counsell and the Cubs.
Those losses have made Boyd’s consistency feel more critical than ever. He and teammate Jameson Taillon have formed a stabilizing veteran presence atop the rotation.
Neither has allowed more than three earned runs in a start since Taillon’s 2025 debut back in late March – a testament to them giving the Cubs a chance to win every time out.
We all dreamt of Max Fried coming to the North Side when last offseason began – which made the signing of Boyd feel, at least to some degree, like a letdown.
But he’s proven that the flashes he showed late last year in Cleveland were no fluke, and establishing himself as a badly-needed safety net for a Cubs rotation pocketed with holes right now.