Matthew Boyd, Carson Kelly Become Free Agents

Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd and catcher Carson Kelly are now free agents, the MLBPA announced Friday. Both players had mutual options — Boyd’s valued at $15MM and Kelly’s at $7.5MM. Boyd receives a $2MM buyout, while Kelly will receive a $1.5MM buyout. Both players likely declined their end of the deal, as players typically go first with mutual option decisions. Regardless, they’re now free agents who’ll be free to explore opportunities with other teams beginning early next week. In the meantime, they can talk with the Cubs about potentially re-signing in Chicago. Boyd, 36 in February, missed a chunk of the 2026 season when he required arthroscopic surgery to fix a partial meniscus tear. He posted good results when healthy, logging 126 2/3 innings with a 3.91 ERA, 18.5% strikeout rate, 7.5% walk rate and 42.2% ground-ball rate. Boyd managed only 202 2/3 innings from 2021-24 due to a series of injuries — most notably Tommy John surgery. He was healthy at the tail end of the ’24 campaign, however, which prompted the Cubs to place a medium-scale (two years, $29MM) bet that he could bounce back to his typical midrotation form. That bet paid off, as Boyd wound up making 53 starts and pitching 306 1/3 frames with a 3.50 ERA, 20.2% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate. The 2026 season had some red flags even beyond the knee scope and subsequent absence, however. Boyd posted quality run-prevention numbers when he was reinstated, but his strikeout rate cratered to 15.5%. He missed a few more bats over the final month of the season but was still well below-average overall. Perhaps some of that is simply attributable to the lingering effects of that knee procedure, but interested teams will probably be a bit wary of the amount of contact he yielded over the season’s final three months. Regardless, Boyd should still command a nice one-year deal in free agency. Multi-year deals for pitchers entering their age-36 season are rare, however, and typically reserved for high-end arms coming off big platform performances. It’s not out of the question that Boyd will secure a second guaranteed season, but one year feels much likelier. More to come. View Comments (5)