Chicago Cubs LHP Matthew Boyd’s pickoff move is a weapon
PHILADELPHIA — For the last 24 years, Matthew Boyd has used the same pickoff move.
Bellevue (Washington) College head coach Mark Yoshino taught Boyd the move when the lefty attended a summer camp at age 10. Every offseason Boyd goes back to work with Yoshino, utilizing a drill that helps him get to the right spot that makes his pickoff move look as close to his delivery as the rules allow.
One morning last month, before a day game at Wrigley Field, Boyd went out to the mound for extra work. His pickoff move had been feeling out of sync.
With Chicago Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy looking on next to first base, Boyd spent the next 10 minutes honing his move. Selling the deception of making it look like Boyd’s typical delivery as if he is delivering the pitch to the catcher. Pregame mound work to get feedback and using a mirror to go through the sequence is part of Boyd’s process for his pickoff move, which has been a weapon for the left-hander, especially this season.
“He works hard at that,” Hottovy said Tuesday. “It’s a skill to learn that and do it the right way. I mean, it’s a huge thing so it just takes time. A lot of guys just don’t want to put in the time it takes. But he’s made an effort, and it’s paid off.”
Boyd’s five pickoffs are tied with the Yankees’ Max Fried for most in the majors, though he believes one of his caught-stealings should have been credited instead as a pickoff. His total already matches the career high he set in 2019, but Boyd has hit that mark in nearly 111 fewer innings pitched than that season. He had combined for four successful pickoffs between 2020-24.
Boyd recorded his fifth pickoff to end the third inning in Monday’s walk-off loss to the Philadelphia Phillies when he caught Trea Turner leaning the wrong way.
“Some years you’ll see I get a lot of pickoffs early and then I don’t get any the rest of the way because they stopped running,” Boyd told the Tribune on Tuesday. “To me, that’s a win too. The goal is if you can get a free out, that’s a bonus, but it’s to control the running game. If I can keep those guys a step closer to the bag, then maybe it equates to them not taking an extra bag on a single or maybe makes them a little leery of stealing.”
Boyd doesn’t believe he’s doing anything different with his pickoff move that has made it more successful in nabbing runners at first base. The Cubs were aware of how dangerous he can be with it when they faced Boyd in Cleveland last year. Ian Happ remembered the scouting report was essentially “stay on the base” because his move can be so hard to pick up.
“It’s gross, it looks exactly like a sidestep,” Happ said.
There is a high risk that comes with the high reward, too. Boyd experienced the good and the bad Monday when going to his patented move. He attempted to pick off Otto Kemp in the fifth inning, but his out-of-control throw to first baseman Michael Busch allowed Kemp to advance from first to third — and score when the ensuing pitch was singled. Boyd was hard on himself postgame with how the error impacted the game.
“He works hard on the command side of it, he’s going to make that throw 100 times and probably be good on 95% of them, so we’ll take those odds,” Hottovy said. “It just happened to get away from him yesterday, but we want him to take those opportunities. Those are outs that we can have. And even if he doesn’t get the runner out, it keeps them there, it keeps them in non-scoring position.”
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