Matthew Boyd is headed for knee surgery, leaving the Cubs without another key starting pitcher and putting even more pressure on Jed Hoyer to address the rotation before the trade deadline.
After an All-Star campaign in 2025, Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Matthew Boyd has not been able to repeat his success during the 2026 season.
Boyd just had his best start of the year, going six innings and allowing two runs against the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 3, but things got even worse for the 35-year-old Cubs starter on Wednesday.
According to manager Craig Counsell, Boyd will undergo surgery on his left meniscus and will be out for the foreseeable future. There is currently no timeline for his expected return.
In five starts this season, Boyd has thrown just 24 innings and is 2-1 with a 6.00 ERA. This injury now puts a third key Cubs starting pitcher on the shelf. And of course, it's the three starting pitchers who were penciled in as Chicago's top-of-the-rotation arms before the season.
Cade Horton had Tommy John surgery and is out for the entire 2026 season, and lefty Justin Steele has had setbacks in his TJ recovery and will now be out until at least the All-Star break.
There's that old adage in baseball that you can never have enough pitching, and the 2026 Chicago Cubs are a perfect example of why.
By all accounts, this is one of the best teams in baseball with a 24-12 record, riding a seven-game winning streak and holding a 3.0-game lead in the NL Central. The Cubs should be well positioned to make a run at the National League pennant. But the fear for every Cubs fan down the stretch is that they won't have enough pitching to get over the hump in an ultra-competitive division. The 19-17 Pittsburgh Pirates are currently in last place in the NL Central, and they're only five games back of Chicago.
Edward Cabrera has been as good as you could hope, and Shota Imanaga has certainly exceeded expectations with a 2.40 ERA through his first seven starts. But now that the Cubs can no longer bank on having Boyd, Steele, or Horton available to them, they may not want to wait around until the trade deadline to make a significant addition to the starting rotation.
And for what it's worth, this is exactly why the Cubs should have made a more serious offer to Lucas Giolito when he was still sitting on the free agent market in the middle of April.
The regression from Boyd when he was on the mound, combined with the injury he's now suffered, is a big blow to the on-paper team the Cubs put together in the offseason. But when you enter a season with expectations and start the year with a 24-12 record, you can't afford to let the opportunity pass you by.
Now it's on Jed Hoyer and the front office to waste no time and help this starting rotation out. The injuries keep coming, but that's all the more reason for the Cubs to fight back.