Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy has wildly high hopes for Matthew Boyd

As much as we'd all love a Jack Flaherty signing, a rotation addition of that level seems increasingly unlikely. It seems like the Chicago Cubs will instead lean heavily on some combination of Matthew Boyd, Javier Assad, Jordan Wicks and Colin Rea to round out the mix of starters to open the 2025 season.

Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy chatted with 670 The Score on Wednesday and his comments on Boyd make it clear: the team is betting heavily he can stay healthy and be an effective piece of this club all season long.

Tommy Hottovy on the recently signed Matthew Boyd, who has dealt with injuries: "If we're sitting here today and we say, 'Matt Boyd throws 120 innings of really good baseball,' I think we'd all be really happy ... We know when he's on the field, he's a really good pitcher." pic.twitter.com/AJ4WbliUXO
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) January 15, 2025

Boyd made eight regular season and three postseason starts in 2024 and, yes, he was very effective in those outings - but we're also talking about a guy who was coming off Tommy John surgery, has suffered multiple arm injuries heading into his age-34 season and hasn't pitched 100 innings since 2019.

Betting he can make 20+ starts (again, something he hasn't done in five years) seems wildly optimistic, to say the least. It's not like you're talking about someone with the track record of a Max Scherzer or Justin Verlander - at the end of the day, Boyd is a traveled arm who has a career 4.85 ERA and 92 ERA+ across parts of nearly 1,000 MLB innings.

At best, he's a high-risk, high-reward addition (something Hottovy acknowledged in the interview) when the team really needed a stabilizing high-end arm to slot in alongside Shota Imanaga and Justin Steele. Viewing his signing as something you feel 'really good' about if he hits 120 innings tells you all you need to know about it.

According to Hottovy, the team is expecting guys like Rea to fill in should Boyd need to skip a start or hits the IL. Ben Brown, who swung between the rotation and bullpen last year, will be handled carefully in 2025 - and the same can be said for top pitching prospect Cade Horton. That's one area of strength with this group - there are options and solid depth. The problem is that it's unclear how many - if any - of them are ready to throw impactful innings at the top of a rotation.

This club could use another proven presence in the rotation - but all signs point to this being the hand we're dealt and the team asking for a lot from one of its newest faces.

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