The Cubs are placing left-hander Matthew Boyd on the 15-day injured list with a left bicep strain, retroactive to April 3rd, reports Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic. Right-hander Javier Assad will be recalled from the minors and will start tomorrow’s game.
There wasn’t any prior indication that Boyd was hurt, as he took the ball for the first two turns to start the year. The first one didn’t go well, as Boyd allowed six earned runs in 3 2/3 innings. He bounced back on Wednesday, tossing 5 2/3 against the Angels, striking out ten while allowing just two earned runs. For what it’s worth, his velocity did drop. His fastball averaged 93.3 miles per hour in the first outing but was down to 92.2 in the second.
On its own, it doesn’t appear to be a disastrous development. Sharma adds that Boyd and manager Craig Counsell feel it’s a small issue that will require a minimal IL stint. Regardless, it’s a bit worrisome in the larger context of the club’s rotation. They started the year with Justin Steele still working his way back from last year’s surgery. He is on the 60-day injured list and is therefore out until at least late May. Cade Horton landed on the IL last week due to forearm discomfort. His status is still up in the air but that’s a worrisome diagnosis.
Losing Boyd is another hit for a group that is already snakebit. They do still have Edward Cabrera, Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga in three spots. Assad was optioned to the minors to start the year but will now come back up and slot in behind those three. It’s expected that Colin Rea, who began the season in the bullpen, will probably jump to the rotation as well.
As far as fallback plans go, Assad and Rea are pretty good. Assad has a 3.43 earned average over 331 career innings. He only really got nudged out of the season-opening rotation because he still has options. Rea posted a 3.95 ERA in a swing role last year and the Cubs clearly value his ability to move fairly seamlessly between starting and relieving. They restructured his deal in November to give him a bit of extra cash and keep him around while adding a club option for 2027.
Despite Assad and Rea being decent contingencies, it’s less than ideal for the rotation to lose two guys in a span of a few days. The remaining 40-man guys on optional assignment are relievers. Ben Brown is perhaps an option to make a start or two but he’s in the big league bullpen. Prospect Jaxon Wiggins is in Triple-A but isn’t on the 40-man and is still showing big control issues, with a 13.9% walk rate so far this year. In terms of non-roster guys with big league experience, Vince Velasquez tossed five innings yesterday in a Triple-A start yesterday.
Photo courtesy of Matt Marton, Imagn Images
Avoid the Boyd! He ruins pizzas.
He’s on my fantasy team but this cheered me up lol
This better not end up being like ‘85 where the entire starting rotation went down in like a 3 week stretch.
I remember that. By the end of the season they had so many players on the DL they almost didn’t have enough to fill the 25-man.
The 1985 Cubs were the biggest letdown for me since I’ve been following baseball and that’s a long time. For like two months, nobody on that team could hit a curveball and I think they even had a 13 game losing streak in there.
*sigh*
Steele, Horton and Boyd on IL.
Ouch.
Cabrera, Shota, Taillon, Rea and Assad.
Glad management did not listen to the bloggers who wanted to dump Taillon after the Cabrera acquisition.
Depth both tested and gone by game ten.
Fairly critical week upon us. Toughest stretch of season starts next week. Phl-NYM-Phl-LAD-SD. Need to get through April touching .500. Much like last season–April is the toughest month, albeit what should have been a nice takeoff.
The real problem isn’t the starters. The real problem once again is the starting bullpen Hoyer is again putting together. The problem once again is that the Cubs will be down again and chasing by May and looking for more Hoyer Bargains for the bullpen. Except this year he hasn’t left himself any money in the budget to get some because he had to have Bregman at 35 million because he couldn’t stand that Shaw was capable of getting the job done. Now Bregman will be fine but what was ore IMPORTANT? A reliable bullpen or a 3B we didn’t really need? Either you’re a smart Tax team or you’re not. Hoyer is NOT. 35 million would have re signed Keller and got him some reliable friends not named Hoby Milner and Webb.
You speak with great conviction, uncle Mike. You excel at telling us everything the Cubs did wrong, but you seem unable to say with any specificity what they should do now. Fix the bullpen? Ok, who do they try to get, for how much, what do they have to offer in return, and what makes you think other teams would be open to a trade? It’s easy to tell us what went wrong after the fact.
Let’s be honest Uncle—you spent the entire summer last year spitting on Hoyer for not going to $75M+ for Tanner Scott—who quite honestly was the worst reliever in all of baseball last year. Led the majors in blown saves before his season ending injury. That was right after trumpeting Gage Workman as untouchable and he needed to be the starting third baseman.
Appreciate your opinions and passion always, but when it comes to third base and relief pitching I’m being friendly in saying I’m staying away from your input there.
(Remember a couple years ago when you told all of us, about 1 against 15—that “Morel only needs reps.”
Giolito would be a good add for the Cubbies
This is problem when you mix pepperoni with mushroom, you get a half jacked rotation lead by “snickerdoodle cookie” Imanaga who stinks to absolute high heaven.
Come on now, Imanaga is not that bad. The man had an 0.99 WHIP last year.
He’s fine but if he were an orange, how much juice are really getting (Not even trying to mention the pulp!) if his fastball goes under 95 he’s toaster strudel period, he was LIT up last season in the second half.
Antony Rizzo can pitch.
Yeah, a left-handed starter has a left bicep problem and the Cubs aren’t worried.
Bicep injuries have harmed several teams.
It’s biceps, not bicep, always!