Should tough luck Chicago Cubs brace for more bad news regarding Matthew Boyd?

The Chicago Cubs have been getting slammed with bad news these last few days. On Monday, it was announced that de facto ace Matthew Boyd was being placed on the 15-day IL with a left biceps strain.

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That news came just a day after the team placed young future ace Cade Horton on the 15-day IL with a right forearm strain.

The back-to-back blows effectively remove the Cubs’ top two starters from the rotation and potentially send the team into panic mode, less than two weeks into a 2026 season where a championship run was fully expected.

To make matters worse, the 24-year-old Horton’s MRI didn’t “come back clean” and there will now be a second medical opinion pursued before the pitcher and the team consider their options. There is currently a strong possibility that Horton may be headed towards his second Tommy John surgery. In 2021, the right-hander had the medical procedure done while in his freshman year at the University of Oklahoma.

Concern about Matthew Boyd’s return?

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And now some believe that Boyd’s injury is possibly not as minimal as the pitcher and Cubs manager Craig Counsell have initially let on.

Matt Cozzi from the Locked on Cubs podcast recently conducted his own research and came to the conclusion that there’s some legit cause for concern when it comes to Boyd’s timetable for return.

Per Cozzi:

“Before Monday’s game against the Rays, Boyd did say he hasn’t felt any pain, but also hasn’t bounced back like he normally would after his first two starts…Both Boyd and manager Craig Counsell expressed their optimism, with Counsell even going as far to say he expected a minimal stint on the IL.

Now, why would you say that? Why would you say that?

They don’t know that. And I looked up some bicep strains by pitchers…They have typically forced starting pitchers to miss one month or more. Matthew Boyd is going to be different? Matthew Boyd, who has a long injury history?”

The desperation may be palpable in Cozzi’s tone, but his concern is warranted.

Uncertainty ahead

The 35-year-old Boyd has been devastated by injury for much of the last six years, delivering his first injury-free season in awhile last year. Boyd’s 179.2 innings pitched in 2025 was the first time he had posted more than 100 innings in a season since 2019. Boyd, by the way, is also coming off Tommy John surgery in 2023, although this current biceps issue has not been linked to that procedure.

Whatever the case, there’s real trouble ahead if Boyd, who was the team’s most consistently dependable starter last season, is forced on the shelf for an extended period of time, especially if Horton is lost for the year.

A Cubs rotation that seemed to be overflowing with depth as recently as a week ago, is already under dire strain. The current rotation of Edward Cabrera, Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Colin Rea, and the recently recalled Javier Assad is not a championship-caliber 5-man crew and there doesn’t seem to be any backup until Justin Steele returns from his own elbow surgery at some point before mid-season.

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