Matthew Boyd is expected to throw an up-down bullpen session on Tuesday, a clear next step as the Chicago Cubs keep watch on his recovery and decide what comes after it. The move gives the club a fresh checkpoint on a pitcher whose return has been slowed after he felt left shoulder soreness while ramping up.
The update lands as the Cubs try to sort through a staff with too many moving parts at once. Jameson Taillon was the latest starter to hit the IL and is not expected back for at least a few more weeks, leaving Chicago to manage its innings while it waits on healthy arms to reappear.
That is why the attention has turned so sharply to Boyd's bullpen work. An up-down session is more than a standard throwing day: it asks a pitcher to stop, reset and go again, offering a better look at how the arm responds when the workload changes. If Boyd gets through Tuesday cleanly, the Cubs can use that information to map the next stage of his recovery. If he does not, the timeline stays cloudy.
Justin Steele remains on a slower track, but there is movement. He recently started throwing plyo balls and will stay with the Cubs in Chicago for the next three weeks or so, with the hope that he can transition to a baseball in a week. There is still no real timeline on his return, and that uncertainty matters because Steele is still working back from discomfort in his throwing elbow during a bullpen session in late April.
The backdrop is a three-game stand against the Colorado Rockies, but the bigger story is the state of the pitching staff rather than the opponent. Both Boyd and Steele are trending in the right direction, yet neither has a set return date, and the Cubs are trying to hold the rotation together while the bullpen absorbs the strain. Tuesday will not answer everything, but it should tell them whether Boyd is ready for the next rung or whether the wait continues.
