Matthew Boyd is trending in the right direction as Cubs consider trade-deadline possibilities

Posted July 08, 2026 3:03 pm

By Patrick Mooney

BALTIMORE — Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell wants to keep certain parts of the club’s operation walled off, preferring to stress that it’s always a group effort, rather than spotlight members of his coaching staff: “Blame me, give everybody else credit.”

As the Cubs simultaneously dealt with a barrage of pitching injuries and a collective offensive slump this season, Counsell did not see a bigger concern or a more manageable situation: “One or the other won’t be good enough.”

With the Aug. 3 trade deadline approaching, Counsell won’t be viewing the rotation and the bullpen, exclusively, in terms of priorities. A pitching staff is so connected that there can be different ideas about game-planning and packing the roster with more talent.

But even Counsell acknowledges that certain players can have an outsized impact, the skills and presence to make other pieces fit together better.

Matthew Boyd started Chicago’s first playoff game last year and Opening Day this season. He was picked for the All-Star Game last summer and added to Team USA for the World Baseball Classic this spring. The Cubs went more than halfway through this season still waiting for him to get into a rhythm.

Boyd found it in Tuesday night’s 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles, throwing six scoreless innings at a rain-soaked Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The experienced lefty saw an uptick in velocity early while regaining a sharper feel for his four-pitch mix at game speed. He allowed only three singles and two walks and finished with seven strikeouts. In front of a crowd of 16,200, he submitted his first quality start in two-plus months.

“His presence is very important for us,” Counsell said, referencing how Boyd accounted for almost 180 innings last season. “That means it’s a guy that makes every start, that you can count on, that single-handedly won some games for us. He goes deep into games. That’s the ability that we sorely need and are going to need for the second half.”

Club officials are anticipating a scarcity of starting pitchers available this summer and a trade market that could drag out until the deadline. Some improvements will have to come sooner and from within, and perhaps in less obvious ways.

The Cubs could trade for a young pitcher and develop new opportunities, depending on the circumstances, the way Ben Brown excelled as a high-leverage reliever and a top-line starter before his recent neck injury. The club might make multiple moves for pitching, increasing overall depth, limiting exposure in different areas and creating advantages with particular matchups.

The entire picture looks different if Boyd can recapture the consistency that left him with a 2.34 ERA on Aug. 3 last year and 14 wins by the end of that regular season.

In the first season of a two-year, $29 million contract, Boyd exceeded even the club’s optimistic internal projections, blowing past the workload limits for a pitcher who had not completed a full major-league season in five years.

Already this season, Boyd, 35, has been on the injured list because of a strained left biceps and surgery on his left knee, leaving him with only 39⅔ innings pitched in the final week before the All-Star break.

“I like to think I’m fresh in that regard,” Boyd said. “Just go out there and attack every pitch until Craig takes the ball from me. I’m doing everything I can to be ready every time the ball’s given to me.”

Since activating Boyd from the injured list June 25, the Cubs have won all three of his starts. His pitch count increased to 93 on Tuesday night, a bump from throwing 76 in his two previous outings. He finished the sixth inning for only the second time this season. He’s trending in the right direction.

When Boyd appeared to be in trouble during Tuesday’s fourth inning — Pete Alonso drilled a line-drive single, and Coby Mayo got hit by a pitch — he responded by striking out Samuel Basallo, Blaze Alexander and Dylan Beavers swinging at sliders.

“He was dialed in,” Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya said of Boyd. “He dominated the zone. The other team had no chance against him.”

At this point, the Cubs don’t have a clear time frame for when Brown and Justin Steele (flexor strain/left elbow surgery last year) will be fully built back up to pitch in a playoff race. Closer Daniel Palencia (right elbow inflammation) isn’t expected to throw off a mound until after the All-Star break.

Jameson Taillon (strained left hamstring) will likely make one more rehab start in the minors — unless something happens and the Cubs need someone to cover innings this weekend in Cincinnati. Edward Cabrera (strained hamstring/adductor), another pitcher the Cubs envisioned at the top of their rotation, is on a slower timeline.

Even with all this adversity and the streakiness, which produced two 10-game winning streaks and a 10-game losing streak before the end of May, the Cubs are 51-40, with strong odds to make the playoffs, a chance to get some pitchers healthy and the motivation to buy at the trade deadline.

“It’s the hand we’ve been dealt,” Boyd said. “No one else in the league cares. We got to go out there and just compete. It’s going to take all of us.”