One Cubs newcomer not named Kyle Tucker heaped with MLB praise

The Chicago Cubs are off to a fantastic start to the 2025 season, especially when you consider just how challenging the schedule has been. There were the opening two games in Japan (which count against their home games) and then a rough rest of March and April, during which the club faced off against some of the best teams in baseball multiple times.

Quite a bit of their success has come via the offense, and a good chunk of that unit’s success can be placed at the feet of newcomer Kyle Tucker. The outfielder has been so good that Cubs fans are clamoring for him to sign an extension. But there’s another newcomer that has had a very positive impact on the club as well. 

MLB.com recently published an article titled “1 newcomer on each team making an early impression,” and the representative for the Chicago Cubs is someone who has helped the rotation pick up the slack now that Justin Steele is out for the year. Of course, Matthew Boyd was pitching quite well even before Steele got hurt.

“While Chicago looks to strengthen the back of the group, Boyd has helped the top not miss a beat. Four turns in, the 34-year-old lefty has a 2.01 ERA with 20 strikeouts in 22 1/3 innings,” Jordan Bastion wrote for the site. He added that Boyd is “looking like a free-agent steal so far.”

It all comes down to health for the Cubs and Matthew Boyd in 2025

It’s not hard to believe that as long as Boyd can stay healthy, he will indeed be one of the steals of the season. He signed a two-year deal in December and is earning about $14.5 million annually, with the potential to earn an additional $1 million in incentives.

One has to assume that those incentives are all about appearances and innings pitched, considering he returned from Tommy John Surgery just last August, though he was very good in the eight starts he made for the Cleveland Guardians.

Boyd hasn’t made more than 15 starts in a season since 2019, and he’s only made at least 30 starts in two seasons. All of that is to say that when the Chicago Cubs signed Boyd as their big rotation piece this offseason, it was a risk. So far, that risk has paid off.