Cubs Starter Matthew Boyd Makes Spring Debut With a Very Different Slider

[Matthew Trueblood]

The veteran fourth starter is healthy and hoping to enter this season with a full head of steam. His first Cactus League outing was an eye-opening one, for those watching his Statcast readout.

Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

In two scoreless innings of work Monday in Arizona, Matthew Boyd struck out two and sat just over 92 miles per hour with his fastball, which is what that pitch averaged in 2024. It was an excellent first outing in that regard for Boyd, 34, who signed a two-year deal in the fall worth $29 million. Even more interesting than the early heat on that four-seamer, though, was a change to the pitch that has been Boyd's signature for much of his career—perhaps in response to the fact that it wasn't his best weapon last year.

Here's a visualization of Boyd's pitch movement in a fairly typical start from 2024, on Sept. 6 against the Dodgers.

As is his wont, Boyd utilized a four-seamer with average ride but more armside run than most such offerings; a diving changeup, including a variant with a bit of relative cut to it; and a big, roundhouse kind of slider, not quite a sweeper (it has too much depth for that), but not at all a hard, gyro-style offering. It averaged just under 80 mph last season, making an ample contrast with the low-90s heat because of the huge difference in the movement of the two pitches. Boyd was very good that day, and he had a strong season overall. He even carried over that excellence into October.

When he took the mound against the Padres in Peoria, Ariz. on Monday, though, things looked different.

Without a noticeable change in arm angle (the caveat here being that spring training camera angles are a nightmare), Boyd found a touch more ride on his four-seamer, and his curveball became a huge, bending thing that figures to really lock up opposing batters. By far the easiest difference to spot, however, is that slider. This version is an almost perfect gyro slider. Not pictured is the velocity difference: Boyd sat north of 83 miles per hour with the slider Monday.

The old version of Boyd's slider was working just fine. He did reduce his usage of it against righties last season, though, favoring his changeup instead. That change will still be a vital part of his repertoire, but with this version of the slider in the mix, he could theoretically attack righties more aggressively with four different pitches.

Now, let's not get carried away. Boyd threw exactly four of these Monday. It's possible (though highly unlikely) that he simply couldn't find the usual depth and sweep of his bigger, slower slider. It's possible (and much, much more likely) that he was tinkering with something he might never bring into a game that counts. Monday was an interesting glimpse of another club he could add to his bag, though. A version of Boyd who could throw that slider and his usual one, for instance, might be especially lethal—if it could be done without the pitches blending together and getting worse, which is always a tough tightrope to walk.

Little though they sometimes mean, early indicators of possible changes to a player's skill set or approach are one of the most interesting aspects of spring training. Boyd showed a willingness to try something new Monday, and it might turn out to be an important development for him down the road. If it turns out to be something he's especially committed to, it will be doubly fascinating, since it would represent a wholesale change to a pitch that has facilitated a highly accomplished career.

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