Today: Speaking on ESPN 1000 radio, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reported that Horton is set to visit Dr. Keith Meister later today, following an inauspicious MRI (per ESPN 1000’s David Kaplan). While a second opinion from a well-known orthopedic surgeon doesn’t confirm bad news, it’s no doubt a worrisome development for the Cubs and their young right-hander.
April 3, 6:17pm: Skipper Craig Counsell tells Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic that Horton will go for imaging this weekend. The team will know once the results come back, but the righty will land on the 15-day injured list in any case.
April 3, 3:56pm: Cubs righty Cade Horton exited today’s start after calling for a trainer in the second inning. The Chicago Tribune’s Meghan Montemurro points out that Horton’s final pitch was a fastball that clocked in about two miles per hour shy of his season average. Taylor McGregor of the Marquee Sports Network adds that the Cubs are calling Horton’s injury right forearm discomfort.
It’s an ominous development for a Cubs team that opened the season without ace Justin Steele, who is still on the mend from last April’s UCL surgery. Horton, 24, was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2025 after kicking down the door to the majors with a 2.67 ERA in his first 118 big league frames. The 2022 No. 7 overall pick’s 20.4% strikeout rate was a couple percentage points shy of average, but he offset that with strong command (6.9% walk rate), an average ground-ball rate (42.3%) and a knack for avoiding hard contact. He’s pitched 7 1/3 innings this season between his debut and today’s abbreviated start. Opponents have two runs on four hits and a walk.
Obviously, it’s too soon to say whether Horton will miss an extended period of time — if he misses any at all. Even a short-term IL stint would sting, however. The rest of the Chicago rotation includes Matthew Boyd, Jameson Taillon, Shota Imanaga and trade acquisition Edward Cabrera. Steele and former first-rounder Jordan Wicks are both on the injured list already.
Veteran swingman Colin Rea is in the bullpen and could start in the short term if the Cubs need. He filled in admirably last year when injuries piled up on the starting staff. Rea posted a 4.33 ERA in 27 starts last season and a 0.56 ERA in 16 relief innings. He was manager Craig Counsell‘s go-to option today as well, taking over after Horton’s exit. Righty Ben Brown worked as a starter in camp and is still stretched out for multiple innings as well; he’s tossed 6 2/3 frames in two appearances this season.
Looking further down the depth chart, righty Javier Assad is in Triple-A and already on the 40-man roster. He’s pitched to a 3.43 ERA in 331 major league innings, mostly out of the rotation, though injuries limited him to 55 1/3 innings between Triple-A and the big leagues last year. Top prospect Jaxon Wiggins is also in Triple-A but would need to be added to the 40-man roster. Veterans Kyle Wright and Vince Velasquez also opened the season with the Cubs’ top affiliate in Des Moines after signing minor league deals in the winter. Either could be called upon as short-term replacements, although like Wiggins, they’d need to be added to the 40-man roster.
Didn’t look like a pop but still not feeling great about this
From the look on his face walking to the dugout, and knowing he already has had TJ surgery, I’m guessing he knew right away it was bad. My guess is he’s done for the year, with another full TJ, or internal brace, and hello August of 27 (assuming the upcoming lockout is over by then). On a totally unrelated note, hey Miami…y’all have such a cool city, but the humidity and weird bugs are freaky. Is there any chance Sandy might be looking for a really chill high-rise on Lake Shore Drive that includes all the good pizza and Chicago Dogs he can eat? If so….just call Jed at 1-800-We Just Got Desperate
And that would put the Cubs over the tax and make Tommy an unhappy boy going into the CBA lockout. Good job Jedley. Give that man another extension!
1-800- lucas Giolito
Familiar w city. Send him to AAA for a month n lets go
And that would put the Cubs over the Tax and even Rea, Brown and Assad are better than him anyway. So no thanks to another bad idea.
as a sox fan, pass on giolito. there is a reason he is not signed when a ton of teams need pitching
Funny, from everything he said afterwards and Craig’s comments I think it leans more towards tendinitis or nerve irritation. Didn’t take much to send ya’ll doomsayers to the hand wringing stage did it?
You were saying?
TJ Surgery imminent
How does a pop “look”?
I want to know which genius in the front office was primarily responsible for the signing of Monton. For 2 years yet!!! I really hope it wasn’t the same person who recommended Ryan Pressly last season.
IF it was, that clown should be sent packing immediately.
They knew about it before he took the mound today. It was his turn in the rotation but on the website the team listed TBD as today’s starter until this morning.
cubs manager has posted tbd for years a bush league move,Murphy does it to.
Oh boy, hope it’s nothing huge…
Just hope he doesn’t have ucl issues
Horton heard a ooohhhhh
No effing way Eloy boy crawled out of his rathole after so many years and 500 Sox losses to make a joke about a pending long term Cubs injury.
Chances he’s out for the season and into next? 90%. That’s classic symptoms.
SeMaholic: Another orthopedic surgeon generously providing insight. Egad.
or someone that actually knows ball. unlike yourself. obvious TJ coming.
breweecrewer: On second thought, you’re quite right. They should skip the silly physical exam and imaging and save money by going right to the diagnosis provided by commenters on MLBTR with no medical background.
He looked like a guy who had that feeling in his arm before and knows it is bad. Hopefully not.
Even if his UCL is intact you’re probably looking at a 60 day IL stint. They’re not going to rush him back. Hopefully now Steele has no setbacks but he can’t even be activated until late May. It’s not the fact the Cubs don’t have guys, It’s he was their BEST guy.
Once again doomsayers flood the comments for a stained muscle or tendinitis… you needed to read his after game comments. Didn’t sound that foreboding
Love the Dr’s who all show up here and give their prognosis before the MRI. I know what I saw. Hopefully he was smart about it and got out of there before he caused serious damage But I am willing to wait and see.
Not good. For Cubs to have a shot at World Series, they need both a healthy Horton and a healthy Steele in September and October.
Los Angeles and Milwaukee both look good again this year, so the margin for error is very thin.
Hopefully, Horton will just need a couple weeks of rest.
WS dream is over sir
Cubs have YET to get past the brewers.
So all this crap about WS aspirations is extremely laughable.
lol exactly. not even the best team in their division.
Well we all know the team with the poor man’s Nico Hoerner has World Series aspirations after so many great years of postseason success.
F***************k!!!!!!!
Well Steele was out for the year last year during his first start. At least Horton made it til his second start this year. I hate this – hopefully he escapes without anything too serious but I doubt it.
It looked bad. He was almost in tears. Assad would be the logical choice except he pitched last night and has been pretty bad so far. Bring up somebody for a couple of days until they decide who to bring up. They could slot in Brown or Rea with the other moving to long man. Lots of moving parts right now, Should be interesting to see how it plays out.
Bring up Hollowell for a few days since he has options, then bring up Assad when he is rested.
Brown should be the choice.
He WAS not almost in tears, and its just a muscle strain or tendinitis dude, get real
This article came quick. Wonder how long it’ll take to post about the Alejandro Kirk injury….
That didn’t look good either. Looked like a possible broken left thumb.
Yeah that was unfortunate. Hopefully just a stinger. Ally one of those guys you like to root for
The injury to Kirk is the real “McCoy”. No “Bones” about it.
Did you know that Captain Kirk had three wars. One on each side and the Final Frontier.
Three ears
One on each side and the final front-ear.
As a White Sox fan that absolutely does not like the Cubs….this still sucks for this dude. Hope it’s nothing serious, but wouldn’t hold my breath
Least south siders taking care of business this afternoon for the fans
Yeah pretty sweet walkoff after a gutsy bunt for baseline with 2 outs. Hope Hortons healthy. Good donuts
Ben Brown says “hi”
Sure is a lot of discomfort lately.
Ruh roh
Spaghetti roh
Damn
Cubs are up 1-0 going into the bottom of the 5th in this game and feels like (due to Cade’s injury) that they’re down 47-0
Seriously, if Cade’s going to miss significant time, we’re about to see if the Cubs management are truly all-in or not. And yes, Brown, Rea and Assad are solid candidates for the rotation, but it’s tough to see them as difference-makers in the playoffs.
But…I want to be wrong about all this.
Dont worry, they will lose. Once cade went down, tribe/ guards free money
Team is shell shocked n shouldnt even have a run
Cade season may be over. It its TJ, could be career threatening being #2
Not his elbow, his wrist tightened
hopefully returns by May 2028.
Let Bauer get ramped up with Long Island and make that call. The fan base would embrace him while sitting shirtless in the bleachers, making beer snakes, and stumbling to Sluggers after the game to meet their new girlfriend who’s puking in the bathroom after too many fireball shots
Lucas Giolito maybe. Bauer never.
They have brought back and embraced former Cub scumbag Sammy Sosa. At least Bauer could help them on the field. He’d be cheaper and much better than Lucas. Plus, Trevor wants to be miked up and continue to produce content on his socials. There is cross branding to be done here and both parties could benefit.
Giolito hasn’t been ‘competitive’ in years. There are multiple better choices already available, on the roster.
I worded my response poorly. My point is that the Cubs likelihood of signing Trevor Bauer is less than their odds of trading for Paul Skenes, Yoshinobu, Yamamoto, Christopher Sanchez, Joe Ross, or Miles Mikolas this year.
Rea and Assad are the next men up.
They don’t have the farm left for a significant SP trade, and Bauer is better than all of those sans Skenes, although if he wasn’t suspended and blacklisted, he would be. This is not a pro Bauer opinion post. It’s just the right baseball move. The fit is there, and there wouldn’t be fan backlash via attendance because cub fans show up no matter. Most are so smashed they wouldn’t even notice he’s pitching, and the other half are so baseball ignorant they wouldn’t even know he’s on the team
Slider
If you think after all this time that Bauer is presently better than Yamamoto and Sanchez, both of whom are just a hair behind Skenes, then we just have to disagree.
I will concede that I am biased against Bauer, but my post is not focusing on whether or not it is a bad PR move for an owner, but rather that several years of biological aging and being out of MLB makes it very unlikely that Bauer is more than a bottom of the rotation guy even if a team took a flyer on him, which won’t happen anyway.
A 3.41 era last year wasn’t competitive??? Really, do tell
Slider sounds like he knows Ricketsville all too well!
Bauer is washed up. Put that aside. There is no way the Cubs or any team will get involved with him. Its over for him.
You must be the same guy on the Football Rumors page who cries for Colin Kaepernick every time an NFL team needs a QB.
Kaepernick did what he thought was right and it cost him some backup QB tryouts. I respect that even if the Anthem is not how I would have gone about it myself. Most athletes are more about the money. But even if you think Kaepernick was wrong, comparing him to Bauer tells me more about you than you want to share on a baseball blog.
Throwsa Parks
Okee dokee, Judge Judy.
Plain and simple and I called it out in the Opener. Cubs starting pitcher, this morning, was listed on the two betting sites I looked at, on espn, on mlb.com, and on the CUBS WEBSITE as TBD. Horton was listed last night.
There was some question BEFORE he started.
Maybe unrelated, of course, but to be TBD with Shota, Taillon, etc listed going forth makes the post-game interviews quite interesting.
MLB app listed all 3 starters for the Cubs TBD yesterday
Dont feed the troll. He/she/it cray cray
Negative vibes! Let’s wait for the MRI results vice the immediate arm-chair-doctor-wannabe gloom, despair and agony” crap.
That’s a wise policy. A wise policy indeed waiting for the medicals. Regarding the negative vibes, after seeing what happened to Cade and his body language. Sure is a big cause for concern.
Hopefully the last pitch he threw was a strike. Godspeed you young emperor
UBS are easily one of most overrated teams in baseball with or without Horton and Suzuki! Cubs will soon find themselves 10 games behind brewer wondering why and spend next couple months paying catch up, hey, as the excuses ring out, it’s early!
Welcome back Bruce!! Always good to hear from you to confirm the Cubs are still living in your head. I get worried when they are doing well and you have nothing to do.
Brewers all the way! Cubbies distant 3rd!
Pass the bong, Sir.
The kind of news we hear too often when it comes to pitchers.
Cubs overrated regardless of Horton and Suzuki! Brewers up 10 games shortly!
Could easily see Brewers win the division again and Cubs being a wild card again. Or the other way around. Both look like good teams to me. It is early in the year, I also still think that the Marlins are a fourth place team and the Phillies will win their division with Atlanta in second.
Colorado, Washington and St. Louis as the NL last place teams would be a fun bet.
Riley Martin is being called up.
Counsell won’t make it through the year. One of the most overhyped managers in MLB history. They must cut ties
Inauspicious how?
Well, you don’t typically seek second opinions if you like the first one..
This is where I remove him from a top loader and just remains in a penny sleeve.
Cade needs TJS 😢😢😢