{"id":621802,"date":"2026-03-13T13:53:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/621802\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T13:53:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:53:28","slug":"cubs-notes-boyd-outfield-shaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/621802\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Notes: Boyd, Outfield, Shaw"},"content":{"rendered":"

Left-hander Matthew Boyd<\/a> returned to the Cubs after his stint with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic and was promptly named the team\u2019s Opening Day starter by manager Craig Counsell<\/a>. He\u2019ll take the ball and be followed by Cade Horton<\/a>, Edward Cabrera<\/a>, Jameson Taillon<\/a> and Shota Imanaga<\/a> in some order. Righties Javier Assad<\/a> and Ben Brown<\/a> are potential 40-man alternatives, and veteran Colin Rea<\/a> will open the season in a swingman role in the bullpen.<\/p>\n

Boyd, who turned 35 last month, tossed a career-high 179 1\/3 innings with the Cubs last season. He worked to a strong 3.21 ERA with a slightly below-average 21.4% strikeout rate but a terrific 5.8% walk rate. Boyd is entering the second season of a two-year, $29MM contract. He already unlocked $500K of incentives last year based on his workload, and he\u2019ll be paid $14.5MM in 2026 with the opportunity to earn another $500K via incentives (reaching 120 innings). He\u2019s also owed a $2MM buyout on a 2027 mutual option that won\u2019t be picked up by both parties.<\/p>\n

In other Cubs news, the team announced its latest wave of cuts this morning. Lefties Luke Little<\/a> and Ryan Rolison<\/a> were optioned to Triple-A, as was fleet-footed outfielder Justin Dean<\/a>. The Cubs also reassigned a handful of non-roster players to minor league camp \u2014 Vince Velasquez<\/a> most notable among them.<\/p>\n

By sending Dean to Triple-A to begin the season, the Cubs made it quite likely that they\u2019ll open the season with a current non-roster veteran holding a bench spot as a reserve outfielder. Former top prospect Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara<\/a> remains in big league camp and is on the 40-man roster, but he has an option year left and is currently 4-for-21 with nine strikeouts in 23 official spring plate appearances. The team would presumably prefer him to be playing every day in Iowa rather than sitting on the bench and grabbing a start or two per week anyhow.<\/p>\n

The most notable non-roster outfielders in camp are Dylan Carlson<\/a>, Michael Conforto<\/a> and Chas McCormick<\/a>. Carlson has been the most productive of the bunch and offers the bonus of being a switch-hitter who can handle all three outfield spots. Conforto is a pure lefty who\u2019s not an option in center field, though he has the most prominent major league track record of this group (albeit not in the past couple seasons). McCormick is a righty-hitting center fielder who can handle all three spots and has crushed lefties in the past (but struggled against all opponents in 2025).<\/p>\n

One player who clearly seems ticketed for a heavily used role off the bench: former top prospect Matt Shaw<\/a>. The 24-year-old hit just .226\/.295\/.394 as a rookie but did have a nice showing over the season\u2019s final three months. The Cubs\u2019 signing of Alex Bregman<\/a> displaced Shaw from last year\u2019s home at third base, and he\u2019s now moving into more of a utility role.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve already seen Shaw get some reps in the outfield and at second base, but The Athletic\u2019s Sahadev Sharma writes<\/a> that he\u2019s now working first base into his repertoire as well. Shaw tells Sharma that he worked out at first base for about three days before making his debut at the position there during yesterday\u2019s Cactus League game.<\/p>\n

Getting some work in at first base is all the more important in the event of Tyler Austin<\/a>\u2018s knee surgery, which will keep him sidelined for several months<\/a>. Austin returned from Japan\u2019s NPB this year, signing a one-year deal with the Cubs to serve as a righty-swinging complement to Michael Busch<\/a> at first base and the provide some pop off the bench.<\/p>\n

That role is obviously on hold for the time being, and with no clear option to step up and take it \u2014 right-handed-hitting corner infield prospect Jonathon Long<\/a> has been slowed in camp by an elbow issue \u2014 Austin\u2019s injury could create some additional at-bats for Shaw in the early portion of the season. Busch batted .207\/.274\/.368 against lefties last season and is a career .230\/.295\/.356 hitter in left-on-left settings. Shaw hit .250\/.318\/.490 versus left-handers last year and finished as a Gold Glove finalist at the hot corner, so he should have the athleticism and defensive acumen to handle a multi-position role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Left-hander Matthew Boyd returned to the Cubs after his stint with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,9280,590,33153,39236,9675,716,2000,111],"class_list":{"0":"post-621802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chas-mccormick","10":"tag-dylan-carlson","11":"tag-jonathon-long","12":"tag-justin-dean","13":"tag-kevin-alcantara","14":"tag-matt-shaw","15":"tag-matthew-boyd","16":"tag-michael-conforto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116222205772635999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621802","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=621802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}