{"id":594964,"date":"2026-02-26T23:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/594964\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T23:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:13:16","slug":"matt-boyd-is-ready-for-the-world-baseball-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/594964\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Boyd is ready for the World Baseball Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEMPE, Ariz. \u2014 Matt Boyd has given Cubs<\/a> fans a lot of reason to be optimistic about his 2026 season after two spring training starts. It\u2019s sometimes dangerous to make too much of Cactus League results, but Boyd tossed three perfect innings against the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Thursday, adding on to a spring that has already shown promise for another good year on the mound from Boyd.<\/p>\n

Boyd\u2019s next start should come on Tuesday, but he\u2019ll be suiting up for Team USA in a World Baseball Classic exhibition game. There, Boyd will be balancing the thrill of representing his country with the responsibility of continuing his spring progression as close to normal as possible, despite the very different setting.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe pitch count is going to be building as we go into that tournament,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cAnd as far as after that, that\u2019ll take care of itself. Just staying on course with [the pitch count], just get to do it for the stars<\/a> and stripes now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his first spring start, on February 21, Boyd threw 36 pitches, and on Thursday, he threw 34. Boyd said he expects that to increase slightly as the WBC begins, but not much beyond what his typical spring progression would look like.<\/p>\n

That said, a conservative pitch count won\u2019t mean that Boyd is going to be handled differently than he would be under normal circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting treated as a starter, and with the pitch counts, you\u2019re going to need multiple starters,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not someone to count the eggs before they\u2019re hatched. We\u2019ve got to get there. I know that will work itself out, but I\u2019m on that five day rotation. As the pitch counts rise, you\u2019re building up to that full starter\u2019s workload.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Boyd is one of several top-tier starters on the Team USA roster, a group that includes Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal, so the expectation for Boyd to go much beyond his typical pitch count for this time of year is tempered. Boyd said that Team USA manager Mark DeRosa and pitching coach Andy Pettitte have been in regular contact with Craig Counsell and Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy about how they will use him in the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a good plan going forward to make sure I\u2019ll be ready for this whole season up ahead,\u201d Boyd said.<\/p>\n

Having been the unexpected ace of the Cubs\u2019 staff in 2025, more eyes are on Boyd to replicate his success from last year. Given his injury history coming into \u201925, Boyd\u2019s durability was perhaps the biggest question, but after making 31 starts and throwing almost 180 innings in the regular season, Boyd proved that he can handle a heavy workload, one that also included multiple postseason starts.<\/p>\n

And if Shota Imanaga is able to bounce back from his wobbly finish to last season, and if Justin Steele continues to trend toward an earlier-than-expected return from last April\u2019s Tommy John surgery, then some of the burden will be off of Boyd\u2019s shoulders.<\/p>\n

\"Feb<\/p>\n

Matt Kartozian-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

All the same, Boyd is approaching all of his outings \u2014 in both the Cactus League and the WBC \u2014 as a part of his preparation for another successful year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt doesn\u2019t do anything to the process,\u201d Boyd said of balancing spring training starts with the high stakes games of the World Baseball Classic. \u201cEvery time you cross the white line, you have to compete. If you\u2019re going out there working on something, you\u2019re going to get beat. And you\u2019re not maximizing your time between those white lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Boyd knows that pitching in front of the smaller crowds of the relaxed Cactus League environment is a far cry from taking the mound in a major league stadium with national pride on the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intensity is going to be different because we\u2019re playing for our country. You\u2019re out there in front of 50,000 fans as compared to one or two thousand,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cIt\u2019s how you mitigate the days after and how you go up to those build ups when the intensity does go higher naturally. You just have to take care of the days after and monitor and do the ample steps in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyd\u2019s first start in the WBC won\u2019t necessarily be a full test of how he responds to the pressure of the tournament as it\u2019s an exhibition against the Giants, but he even in his spring starts, Boyd is showing the right signs of a solid 2026 season to come. Against the Angels on Thursday<\/a>, Boyd\u2019s fastball sat consistently around 93 and 94 miles per hour, and though he said afterward that he is still getting a feel for his breaking pitches \u2014 Boyd was specifically unhappy with a couple of his curveballs on Thursday \u2014 the fastball is the starting point.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can get your fastball command and drive it the way you want to, at that point everything else is just putting a new grip in your hand and kind of ripping it,\u201d Boyd said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEMPE, Ariz. \u2014 Matt Boyd has given Cubs fans a lot of reason to be optimistic about his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,393,5177,4,877,33018,770,77650,151,382],"class_list":["post-594964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-justin-steele","tag-matt-boyd","tag-mlb","tag-paul-skenes","tag-pitch-count","tag-shota-imanaga","tag-spring-start","tag-spring-training","tag-tarik-skubal"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116139473248813357","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}