As you know, the Cubs signed lefthander Matthew Boyd to a two-year, $29 million contract very early Monday. The signing has not yet been officially announced by the team.<\/p>\n
You can read Josh\u2019s thoughts about Boyd at the link above. But I also have opinions! So here they are.<\/p>\n
Boyd was the Blue Jays\u2019 sixth-round pick in 2013 out of Oregon State. Two years later he was included in the deal that sent David Price from the Tigers to the Jays. The Tigers put him right in their rotation and the results weren\u2019t good (6.57 ERA, 1.480 WHIP in 11 games \u2014 10 starts).<\/p>\n
Over time, Boyd had a couple of good years for Detroit, even as their team got worse after appearing in several postseasons. In 2019, he put together a 3.8 bWAR season (4.56 ERA) even while allowing a MLB-leading 39 home runs. In 2022 Boyd signed with the Giants as a free agent, but never pitched at all for them due to injuries. Instead he wound up traded to the Mariners in August 2022, pitched reasonably well in relief for them (10 games, 1.35 ERA), spent another season in Detroit in 2023 … or part of one, anyway, as he had Tommy John surgery in June 2023 and didn\u2019t return until August 2024. At that point he had signed with the Guardians.<\/p>\n
You probably remember Boyd\u2019s first start back after TJS. It was against the Cubs Aug. 13 in Cleveland. The photo at the top of this post is from that game.<\/p>\n
He utterly baffled Cubs hitters through 80 pitches. Here are his six strikeouts [VIDEO].<\/p>\n
Here are Boyd\u2019s postgame comments after that one [VIDEO].<\/p>\n
Boyd made eight starts during the 2024 season and three more in the postseason. So that\u2019s 11 total starts and 51\u2153 innings, during which he posted a 2.28 ERA and 1.130 WHIP, with just four home runs allowed.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s really good!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also a really small sample size!<\/p>\n
Further, Boyd\u2019s overall performance in 2024 was far better than any season of his career, even with the small sample size. His K rate and walk rate were his best since 2019.<\/p>\n
So is this for real, or did Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins get fooled by the small sample size?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a question that can only be answered by Boyd\u2019s performance for the Cubs in 2025. Boyd has had a reputation as a flyball pitcher, and of course that home run rate from years past would seem to confirm that. On the other hand, Boyd allowed very few home runs in that small sample size in 2024. Perhaps he can continue along those lines.<\/p>\n
Essentially, what the Cubs have done here is replaced Kyle Hendricks in the rotation, at slightly less money than The Professor made in 2024. It seems likely that Boyd will provide better pitching than Hendricks did in 2024. If so, then that\u2019s an improvement, and yes, the Cubs still have room to add another starting pitcher.<\/p>\n
I am hoping that starting pitcher will be Roki Sasaki. If the Cubs did that, Javier Assad could move into a swingman role, something he did quite well for the team in the past. Having Sasaki, Sh\u014dta Imanaga and Justin Steele as your top three starters can, I believe, match with just about any team in baseball. That would make Jameson Taillon the fourth starter \u2014 and that\u2019s a pretty darn good fourth starter, I think, with Boyd following as the No. 5.<\/p>\n
Is this a great signing? No, of course it\u2019s not. Is it a bad signing? No, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s bad, either. For what Boyd can provide, I think it\u2019s perfectly reasonable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This could be a good value signing. Or not. As always, we await developments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n