The Cubs are promoting pitching prospect Cade Horton, per reporting from Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic. Tommy Birch of The Des Moines Register first reported this afternoon that Horton was traveling to New York in advance of this weekend’s series against the Mets. The young righty is not yet on the club’s 40-man roster, so they will need to open a spot for him.
Chicago’s rotation has taken a few notable hits recently. They came into the season with Justin Steele and Shota Imanaga as a one-two punch atop the rotation. Unfortunately, Steele required UCL surgery last month, putting him out of action for the rest of the year. Imanaga suffered a hamstring strain a few days ago. He is surely facing a far shorter absence than Steele but has been placed on the 15-day IL, meaning he’ll miss at least a few turns through the rotation.
Those are the two most obvious losses, but the clubs has also been without Javier Assad all year. He started the season on the 15-day injured list due to an oblique strain. He started a rehab assignment last month but re-aggravated the same muscle, suffering a Grade 2 strain.
Those injuries have created an opening for Horton to make it to the majors for the first time. The Cubs have “TBD” listed as their starter for Saturday’s game at Citi Field, which will seemingly be when Horton takes the ball. It seemed the decision on Imanaga’s rotation spot came down to promoting Horton or stretching out veteran swingman Chris Flexen.
Horton is the higher-upside play. Chicago selected him out of Oklahoma with the seventh overall pick in 2022. The 6’1″ righty has been the organization’s top pitching prospect over the past few seasons. His arsenal is headlined by a mid-90s fastball and a slider that grades as a plus pitch. Horton’s fastball velocity had dipped slightly to the 94 MPH range last year but has rebounded to sit at 95.8 MPH on average with Triple-A Iowa this season.
The 23-year-old has been out to an excellent start in Triple-A. Horton carries a 1.24 ERA while striking out nearly 31% of batters faced through 29 innings. He’s issuing walks at a lofty 12% clip, but the high-octane stuff will get him an opportunity to step into Imanaga’s rotation spot. If Imanaga makes it back within a few weeks, it might be a brief call-up, but the Cubs could theoretically push Ben Brown or Colin Rea to the bullpen if Horton forces their hand with a strong showing over his first few starts.
It’s too late for Horton to reach a full year of service time the traditional way. He meets the necessary prospect criteria to qualify for the Prospect Promotion Incentive, however. That means he could earn a full service year if he finishes in the top two in NL Rookie of the Year balloting. The Cubs would not receive a bonus draft choice if that happens because they didn’t promote Horton early enough to spend 172 days in the majors.
Cade “Thanos” Horton: he was inevitable
Horton is no iron man. He will either be an ace or injured. Hoping for the former.
Long time cubs fan here saying this, hope he doesn’t follow in the injury footsteps of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior!
Good news!
Good time for this.
Cubs are looking way better than expected.
Never Remember = idiot. LMAO
Never Remember = idiotic troll
The next intelligent thing he posts will be the………………What am I saying. That isn’t happening ever.
The main thing to remember, in order to put things into perspective – – is that Horton only threw about 34 innings last summer. Most likely I think he will be receiving starts only until Shota is back.
Maybe then he’ll be rested awhile, then used carefully out of the bullpen.
I don’t like this move. He needs more time in Iowa. If they went with Flexen and has a rough outing in NY, it’s just that and at worst, he goes back to the BP. It’s a lot rougher if Horton has a bad outing – couldn’t they at least wait for a home game against the Marlins next week??
You still could get your wish rondon, there’s supposed to be a lot of rain around NY this weekend.
He’s not very good so good luck
Thanks for the well wishes, pookie!
Finding a 40 man spot isn’t really a problem.
The Pope is a Cubs fan, and Horton arrives on the same day. Coincidence?
Nicely played
Q got a job again so maybe there is something to it.
I think not. It’s like what Harry Carey said when a ball caroomed off of Lee Smith to the shortstop to win a game in 1984: the good lord must be a Cubs fan!
Brother said he’s a Sox fan.
Sox fans don’t exist anymore they haven’t existed since 2005
How can he be a Cubs fan when he is a Cardinal?
WAS a Cardinal !! He just got called up.
EST thing about a Cubs fan becoming pope is that he is no longer a Cardinal.
God is a Red Sox fan. This is known.
Will Horton hear a who? Or hatch an egg?
I’m willing to see him pitch and cut him some slack. Hoyer won’t though. That moron will throw him against the Mets in NY when common sense tells us it’s better he starts against the Marlins and W. Sox, It just gives Hoyer an excuse to send him back if it doesn’t go well. If you’re a first time parachuter do you jump out over a square mile of metal spikes, Or do jump out over a nice field of grass? Hoyer is so stupid it’s not funny.
Mike
Hoyer is desperately trying to save his own job, that is what guides Jed. Sometimes that will align with what is best for the team and sometimes not. I am more worried about Horton’s pitch count than the quality of the opposition.
I think you’re focusing on the quality of the opposition too much, Uncle. Let’s see what he can do against the Mets. And he isn’t going to be sent down after one start in any case….The bigger worry is that he might turn out to be Caleb Kilian by another name. But we’ll see.
Killian only got emergency starts where he was called up the day of the game so I can’t hate on him. But yeah he didn’t fare well and now he’s hurt again and will be gone when he’s healthy. It’s not a huge loss but just another case where Hoyer never really gave a guy a chance at all. A snowball has better luck in Florida than a Cub prospect gets.
Dude, if you can’t pitch against the Mets you need not put on a major league uniform. This is the majors….it’s not going to be easy against anyone.
Top 100 is right….the pitch count is the key. He’s been able to get 6 innings out of 75-80 pitches in the minors. You need to hope he can get into the 5th at this level.
The Cubs had a day off this week. That means they could have started every game this week on normal rest with what they had with Flexen in long relief. There was ZERO need to bring him up before Monday. It’s not a question of ability, It’s question of strategy. A smart team wouldn’t have had a premature explosion like I bet Hoyer does every day. Everything is a shiny object to him until it’s not and it blows up in his face and he looks like the Coyote in a Road Runner Cartoon.
Understood on the day off Uncle but inserting Horton (or anyone) affords FOUR pitchers and extra day off and Horton IS pitching in his regular rotation.
Since there are three guys you hoped for at the beginning of the season (Steele, Shota, Assad) MIA you are already into pitchers 8, 9, 10 territory and I’m sure you are eagerly awaiting a Rea or Boyd implosion so I find very little issue getting four starters an extra day when you can.
It would be real helpful to get some length from Taillon tomorrow. Taillon to Hodge in the 9th….sound good?
No I’m a Cub fan. I’m not eagerly awaiting an implosion. Nobody will be happier than me if Boyd lasts past June and Rea keeps it up but history tells me different. Rea has been an effective short term starter in his career but hasn’t really been good for a whole season. Boyd hasn’t had a full season in years. When Hoyer signed Boyd I sincerely thought he signed him to be the Closer and I think he would have been good at that and 5 million cheaper than Scott. I hope to God that Hodge is ready for the Closer role now because we need him more than ever. I think it’s too much to put on Palencia as I’m just happy he learned to throw strikes. Gotta keep him where he’s at. The only way Hoyer is getting out of this is if Imanaga and Assad don’t make it back and Horton and Brown are restricted what’s ole Jed gonna sacrifice next to save his job? I shudder to think after seeing what he’s got for all the talent he gave up on already for no reason. Scares me.
Alright, let’s see what he’s got.
Can the Cubs take Assad off the 40 man since he’s on the 60 Day IL or because he’s on the IL can Cade use his spot? Or will the Cubs DFA someone?
He’s already off the 40 man.When you’re on the 60 day you don’t count against the 40 man. They might be able to move Morgan onto the 60 day and then he won’t count.
I didn’t know that. I’d much rather have Assad over Morgan when he’s healthy.
What they should do is bring up Shaw and Horton and get rid of Brujan or Lopez and send Hollowell back down. Let’s see what Jed does. Or even lose Merryweather. Flexen needs to stay to back up Horton and Thielbar is a 2nd LH for all the good that does. Rather keep Hollowell than Merryweather at this point.
Seems like Jerry is hit and miss so far this year. I’d rather go with Hollowell over Jerry as well.
I’d cut Pressly or Roberts, tbh. But I cant argue with Brujan or Lopez, either. Sadly we have a handful of players on our active and 40-man that shouldn’t be playing MLB.
By June/July Jed will swallow his pride and realize his job is on the line, and start getting rid of the nonsense on this roster and acquire a couple players to help w the playoff push. At least one late-inning reliever and maybe another bench piece.
They’re not gonna cut Pressly. Too much money on the line. Jed already got robbed for Tucker, And he got abused for Morgan, wasted money on Thielbar, Went over the Tax by like 3 million last year. Exactly how freakin bad do you have to be for Ricketts to fire this guy? He has a flunky there in Hawkins who can finish the year until the find a real POBO. Fingers crossed.
I thought Thielbar has looked pretty good thus far. The rest I agree. Tucker especially if they get nothing but this year out of him.
Too early to tell if Cam Smith or Matt Shaw will have the better career – or if either will even be average. I am fine with the Tucker trade if Jed retained a talented 3B. They have a deep farm. I would play Berti for a couple more weeks and hope that is enough time to get Matt Shaw straightened out. Cubs did a good job demoting PCA working with him to get him ready again and now the results are awesome. Jed mostly sucks but you have to give the FO credit for PCA and Carson Kelly.
This is like the mid 2015s resurgence for the cubs all over again
The only difference is those teams had good veteran pitchers and these cubs have imanaga and who? Healthy?
Shout out to Horton! Let’s see what ya got, kid!
Has he been blessed by Pope Leo XIV? The Pope is from Chicago and he’s a Cubs fan.
Let’s go Horton. Class of 2022 draft represent