The Chicago Cubs have signed veteran starting pitcher Matthew Boyd to a Major League Deal.
The Chicago Cubs have been somewhat quiet this off season only making a couple of midlevel moves such signing veteran reliever Phil Bickford to a minor league deal, trading for RHP Eli Morgan from the Cleveland Guardians, and trading for catcher Matt Thaiss of the Los Angeles Angels, the Chicago Cubs have made another minor signing. This time the Cubs are adding rotational depth with signing veteran starting pitcher LHP Matthew Boyd to a 2-year $29M deal with $1M in incentives to bring it up to $30M per Jon Heyman.
Matthew Boyd who will be 34 come February has spent 10 seasons in the MLB where he’s played for the Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Guardians, Seattle Mariners, and the Toronto Blue Jays. In those 10 years service time Boyd has accumulated 891 strikeouts in 908.1 innings, with a record of 46-69 and a ERA of 4.85.
Boyd who underwent Tommy John in 2023, ended up being able to sign and pitch for the Cleveland Guardians making it back in August where in 8 starts (39.2 innings) he went 2-2 with a 2.72 ERA, 46 strikeouts, 13 walks, for a WHIP and ERA+ of 1.134 and 151. For the postseason this year for the Guardians Boyd in the ALDS had a 0.00 ERA with 10 strikeouts in 6.2 innings and for the ALCS he had a 1.80 ERA with 4 strikeouts in 5 innings.
The Chicago Cubs already have three locks for the starting rotation as of this writing (barring any trades) they are: LHPs Shota Imanaga and Justin Steele along with RHP Jameson Taillon. Javier Assad would figure to get the 4th spot in the rotation being he made 29 starts there last season where he had a 3.73 ERA in 147 innings. As well as LHP Jordan Wicks who made 10 starts, but now with the Cubs signing Matthew Boyd Wicks figures to move to the bullpen full time.
The signing of Boyd now means the Cubs are left handed dominant in their rotation, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Just as the old saying in baseball goes “You can never have enough starting pitching”. Boyd’s strong finish to the 2024 season is what lead him to signing this deal and could provide some good upside for the Cubs.
Even with this signing the Chicago Cubs still need to look for the top level Ace like arm to fill out this rotation. The Cubs still need to make getting an “Ace” a top priority even if they appear to be out on big name free agent pitchers.
These mid tier signings are all well and good for the maintaining the budget and filling out innings that need to be thrown, but getting an “Ace” to round out a rotation that has the potential to be good with the guys the Cubs have needs to be the goal. If they won’t sign a big name then they need to make a trade for someone like Logan Gilbert of the Seattle Mariners being they have the prospect capital to do so.
For now the signing of Matthew Boyd for the Chicago Cubs overall could prove to be a deal. They get a strong veteran left hander who can help the growth of Imanaga and Steele. As well as fill out the 4-5 spots and get you those much needed innings that a club always needs filled. He could potentially serve as a trade piece to potentially bring back other assets to help further build the club, but we shall see, for now welcome to Chicago Matthew Boyd!
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