Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Matthew Boyd praises God for reaching 10 years in Major League Baseball.
“I’m grateful,” Boyd told MLB.com after he reached 10 years in the league. “It’s one of those things where you always believe in your heart it’s going to happen, but there were plenty of points where…this would have been something I wasn’t even right to think about. You never thought it would be possible.”
“I’m grateful for the people that have believed in me along the way, from the Jays giving me my shot, the Tigers trading for me and giving me all that opportunity, to the Mariners, the Giants, the Guardians,” he added. “And the Cubbies for believing in me now. And all the coaches and teammates along the way. That’s not something you can do on your own.”
Throughout his career, Boyd battled “through inconsistency, five different organizations and two elbow surgeries,” Sports Spectrum reported.
But through it all, he leans on his faith in God to stay grounded.
“I trust God and know He has good things planned for me,” Boyd wrote of the Spring 2024 edition of Sports Spectrum Magazine. “I know He’s got me and I’m His handiwork. … I believe my best baseball is ahead of me. I still believe I’m going to win a World Series and be one of the best starting pitchers in this game.”
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The pitcher started his career “with the Toronto Blue Jays on June 26, 2015, but was traded to the Tigers nearly a month later. He logged a career-high 185.1 innings and 238 strikeouts in 2019, but then came five straight seasons in which he tallied fewer than 80 innings (2020 was shortened due to the COVID pandemic). Detroit decided to move on after the 2021 season,” according to Sports Spectrum.
Related: ‘Called to Serve’: Cubs Pitcher Champions the Voiceless for Christ’s Kingdom
In 2022, Boyd signed with the San Francisco Giants but would not make an appearance as he was recovering from forearm flexor tendon surgery. Shortly after, he was traded to the Seattle Mariners where he played in 10 games. In 2023, he returned to the Tigers but would be pulled from a game due to elbow pain, which Boyd was later “diagnosed with a partial sprain of his UCL and would undergo Tommy John surgery.”
In 2024, Boyd signed with the Cleveland Guardians and played in eight games before he found his home with the Cubs. Now, Boyd is in the starting rotation and “earned his first All-Star Game selection in 2025 and ended the season with a 3.21 ERA and 154 strikeouts in 179.2 innings pitched.”
Off the mound, Boyd and his wife, Ashley, created a ministry called “Kingdom Home, which “exists to provide a safe home for children at risk of entering child sex slavery.”
The ministry strives to “bring hope and healing to these children by providing for their physical, educational, emotional and spiritual needs — serving them holistically.”
“I talk about the numerous times in Scripture where it talks about to care for the widowed and the fatherless, and Jesus just met people in community,” Boyd told Scott Linebrink in the “Get in the Game” podcast in November. “He met people in relationship. So when you think about those things and you think about those who are vulnerable, who maybe don’t have a voice because of whatever reason, you need to champion for them. You need to be there for them. You need to step up.”
“Everything’s done out of love and that’s how we’re all called to live … that’s how Christ calls us.”
Chicago Cubs pitcher Matthew Boyd on the Sports Spectrum GET IN THE GAME podcast with @ScottLinebrink pic.twitter.com/w7PcZAv75E
— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum) November 13, 2025
Boyd’s decade-long Major League journey stands as a testament to perseverance and faith. The pitcher demonstrated that his triumphs on the mound are matched only by his devotion to serving vulnerable children off it.
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