Matt Boyd is ready for the World Baseball Classic

TEMPE, Ariz. — Matt Boyd has given Cubs fans a lot of reason to be optimistic about his 2026 season after two spring training starts. It’s sometimes dangerous to make too much of Cactus League results, but Boyd tossed three perfect innings against the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Thursday, adding on to a spring that has already shown promise for another good year on the mound from Boyd.

Boyd’s next start should come on Tuesday, but he’ll be suiting up for Team USA in a World Baseball Classic exhibition game. There, Boyd will be balancing the thrill of representing his country with the responsibility of continuing his spring progression as close to normal as possible, despite the very different setting.

“The pitch count is going to be building as we go into that tournament,” Boyd said. “And as far as after that, that’ll take care of itself. Just staying on course with [the pitch count], just get to do it for the stars and stripes now.”

In his first spring start, on February 21, Boyd threw 36 pitches, and on Thursday, he threw 34. Boyd said he expects that to increase slightly as the WBC begins, but not much beyond what his typical spring progression would look like.

That said, a conservative pitch count won’t mean that Boyd is going to be handled differently than he would be under normal circumstances.

“I’m getting treated as a starter, and with the pitch counts, you’re going to need multiple starters,” he said. “I’m not someone to count the eggs before they’re hatched. We’ve got to get there. I know that will work itself out, but I’m on that five day rotation. As the pitch counts rise, you’re building up to that full starter’s workload.”

Boyd is one of several top-tier starters on the Team USA roster, a group that includes Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal, so the expectation for Boyd to go much beyond his typical pitch count for this time of year is tempered. Boyd said that Team USA manager Mark DeRosa and pitching coach Andy Pettitte have been in regular contact with Craig Counsell and Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy about how they will use him in the tournament.

“We’ve got a good plan going forward to make sure I’ll be ready for this whole season up ahead,” Boyd said.

Having been the unexpected ace of the Cubs’ staff in 2025, more eyes are on Boyd to replicate his success from last year. Given his injury history coming into ’25, Boyd’s durability was perhaps the biggest question, but after making 31 starts and throwing almost 180 innings in the regular season, Boyd proved that he can handle a heavy workload, one that also included multiple postseason starts.

And if Shota Imanaga is able to bounce back from his wobbly finish to last season, and if Justin Steele continues to trend toward an earlier-than-expected return from last April’s Tommy John surgery, then some of the burden will be off of Boyd’s shoulders.

All the same, Boyd is approaching all of his outings — in both the Cactus League and the WBC — as a part of his preparation for another successful year.

“It doesn’t do anything to the process,” Boyd said of balancing spring training starts with the high stakes games of the World Baseball Classic. “Every time you cross the white line, you have to compete. If you’re going out there working on something, you’re going to get beat. And you’re not maximizing your time between those white lines.”

Still, Boyd knows that pitching in front of the smaller crowds of the relaxed Cactus League environment is a far cry from taking the mound in a major league stadium with national pride on the line.

“The intensity is going to be different because we’re playing for our country. You’re out there in front of 50,000 fans as compared to one or two thousand,” Boyd said. “It’s how you mitigate the days after and how you go up to those build ups when the intensity does go higher naturally. You just have to take care of the days after and monitor and do the ample steps in between.”

Boyd’s first start in the WBC won’t necessarily be a full test of how he responds to the pressure of the tournament as it’s an exhibition against the Giants, but he even in his spring starts, Boyd is showing the right signs of a solid 2026 season to come. Against the Angels on Thursday, Boyd’s fastball sat consistently around 93 and 94 miles per hour, and though he said afterward that he is still getting a feel for his breaking pitches — Boyd was specifically unhappy with a couple of his curveballs on Thursday — the fastball is the starting point.

“If you can get your fastball command and drive it the way you want to, at that point everything else is just putting a new grip in your hand and kind of ripping it,” Boyd said.