In the 50 innings Matthew Boyd threw last year for the Cleveland Guardians between the regular season and the playoffs, he showed enough for the Cubs to offer him a two-year, $29 million contract in the offseason. In the 103 2/3 innings Boyd has thrown for the Cubs this season, he’s shown enough to become one of the more reliable starters in the rotation, and with Sunday’s announcement, he’s also shown enough to be named an All Star.
It’s the first time Boyd has been an All Star in his 11-year career, and given the injuries he has battled through over the past four years, it’s an achievement it wasn’t obvious Boyd would have, even to him. Roughly a year ago, he was signing his “prove-it” contract with the Guardians after several seasons of battling injuries.
But he’s arrived at this moment an All Star, and Boyd has earned his spot on that roster with the numbers he has put up in the first half. His view of it, however, is much broader.
“I’m a product of the people around me,” Boyd said before naming every member of the Cubs defense, including backup players. “I don’t get that honor without them.”
His performance for the Cubs in the first half of this season is a testament to the talent he has always had, but the fact that Boyd is pitching at the level he is in 2025 also speaks to the work he put in to get healthy again and get back on the mound.
“I think the lesson for everybody, for all of us, is why you never give an inch. You keep at it,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Go about every day the same. You attack every day during your injuries the same. And he’s clearly done that, and this is one of the rewards for that.”
For a rotation that lost Justin Steele for the year in April, went without Shota Imanaga for nearly two months, and will be without Jameson Taillon until at least sometime in August, Boyd has consistently been a stabilizing force. He leads the team in starts (18) and has thrown the largest number of innings while posting the lowest ERA (2.52) on the starting staff. He’s thrown 12 quality starts in the 18 games he’s taken the mound this season, and Boyd has gone 5 innings or more 17 times.
The most recent of those came against the Cardinals on Sunday. Boyd tossed five scoreless innings with nine strikeouts in an 11-0 win. With Sunday’s outing, Boyd’s innings total for 2025 crossed 100 innings, the most he has thrown since 2019, when he was with the Detroit Tigers.
The question for the Cubs going into signing Boyd was whether or not he would stay healthy. Left elbow issues shortened his 2021 season with the Tigers, and it was a multi-year battle to get back to full health, one that took until the latter half of last season. But based on how well he pitched for Cleveland in the regular season; Boyd had a 2.72 ERA in eight starts, and in the postseason — he started two games against the Tigers in the division series and one against the Yankees in the championship round — Counsell and the front office were confident that they were getting a pitcher capable of what Boyd has done thus far this season.
“This is what we thought could happen,” Counsell said. “The health has just been a question. But that was a little bit of the gamble from Jed [Hoyer]’s perspective. But the performance, this is what he did last year, this is what he did in 50 innings. And sure it wasn’t a lot of innings, but this is how he pitched. That part’s not a huge surprise. I mean, he has it in him.”
Boyd joins Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong on the National League roster; Tucker and Crow-Armstrong were both named starters. There is a case to be made that Seiya Suzuki and Michael Busch both deserved spots as well. Suzuki homered Sunday night, bringing his total to 25, sixth-highest in baseball, and his RBI tally to 77, which leads both leagues. Busch, who doubled and singled on Sunday, has quietly put together a .943 OPS season thus far, with 18 home runs and 14 doubles.
“I’m hopeful we can get more guys in,” Counsell said. “The process is the process. There’s a lot of deserving players, and I think we have deserving players. I think we have guys with excellent cases. I think we have All Stars on this team.”
Suzuki, Busch, and maybe even other guys like Carson Kelly or Nico Hoerner might get in as rosters continue to take shape over the next week, but there is no question that Boyd is rightfully deserving of the honor he has received. After 11 seasons in the majors and a career nearly cut short by injuries, Matthew Boyd is headed to Atlanta on July 15 to represent the Cubs in the All Star game. A spot he’s earned because he pushed through those years with the faith that his talent was still there, he just needed to get fully healthy again.
“I don’t want to sound arrogant in that sense, but it’s what I believed I can do,” Boyd said. “You just have to keep a spot at the table open, put your head down and do everything you can.”
