This Cubs Starter Has been an Offseason Steal

The Chicago Cubs have had a good season, posting a 51-35 record in large part due to their surprising contributors to the pitching staff. The biggest contributor to the pitching staff has been the 34-year-old lefty Matthew Boyd. After pitching eight seasons for the Tigers, he struggled to post good surface results, with a 4.92 ERA with the Tigers. Along with that, he has dealt with four separate elbow issues from 2021 to 2024.

Photo Courtesy of Yahoo Sports

Unfortunately, one of those elbow injuries occurred in 2023 when Boyd underwent Tommy John surgery, knocking him out for the rest of the 2023 season and most of 2024. However, the Cleveland Guardians signed him to a 1-year, $740,000 deal, expecting him to return later in the season. Boyd eventually returned and pitched in eight games, posting a 2.72 ERA while striking out 27.7% of batters with a 10.44 K/9. He performed even better in the postseason, pitching to a 0.77 ERA in three postseason starts. The Guardians reached the ALCS before losing to the New York Yankees, but he was far from the reason they lost.

The Cubs were encouraged by his late-season performance and signed him to a 2-year, $29 million deal, and he's outperformed his contract so far. Boyd has posted a 2.65 ERA and a 3.46 FIP in 16 starts. He's been able to limit hard contact, 74th percentile average exit velocity, while only walking 5.6% of the batters he's faced.

Matthew Boyd has been the Cubs' best starter this season and is one of the biggest steals of the 2025 offseason.

• https://www.fangraphs.com/players/matthew-boyd/15440/stats?position=P

• https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/boydma01.shtml

• https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/matthew-boyd-571510?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb

• https://www.si.com/mlb/guardians/news/cleveland-guardians-free-agent-pitcher-matthew-boyd-projected-to-get-this-contract#:~:text=It's%20hard%20to%20imagine%20how,innings)%2C%22%20wrote%20Bowden.