Cade Horton Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
April 17: Counsell tells the Cubs beat that Horton required a full UCL reconstruction (i.e. Tommy John surgery) rather than an internal brace (via Marquee’s Taylor McGregor). The surgery was performed yesterday, and the team projects a recovery period of at least 15 months.
April 7: Cubs right-hander Cade Horton will undergo elbow surgery and miss the remainder of the 2026 season, manager Craig Counsell tells Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic. Per Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune, Horton has a torn ulnar collateral ligament. Whether he requires full Tommy John surgery or some sort of alternative won’t be known until the procedure is taking place. He is already on the 15-day injured list and will be transferred to the 60-day IL whenever the Cubs need to open a 40-man roster spot.
It’s a painful but unsurprising development for Horton. He started for the Cubs on Friday but threw a pitch that was about two miles per hour below his average. He summoned the trainer and was removed from the game, with the Cubs announcing his ailment as forearm discomfort. He was quickly placed on the IL and is now destined to stay there.
Horton entered the 2025 season as one of the top pitching prospects in the league. He delivered on that hype by giving the Cubs 118 innings with a 2.67 earned run average. He had big breakout potential here in 2026 but it will instead go down as a mostly lost season. The eventual details of his surgery will determine his path back to the mound. A full TJS usually has a timeline of 14 months or more, whereas an alternative such as the internal brace variety could allow a pitcher to return slightly quicker.
The young righty wasn’t called up until mid-May last year but pitched well enough to finish second in National League Rookie of the Year voting. As part of the Prospect Promotion Incentive, that gave him a full year of service time retroactively. He’ll continue to collect service time while on the IL this year and will get to the two-year mark. Along the way, he will turn 25 years old in August.
For the Cubs, they will have to proceed without Horton in their rotation plans for this year. They also lost Matthew Boyd to the IL in recent days, though his bicep strain seems fairly minor. From their season-opening rotation, they are down to the trio of Edward Cabrera, Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga. They began the campaign with Javier Assad optioned to the minors but he has quickly been recalled and will start today’s game. It seems likely that swingman Colin Rea will start tomorrow, though the Cubs haven’t made that official.
As mentioned, Boyd’s situation isn’t considered serious, so he could be back in a couple of weeks. There’s also Justin Steele, who is working his way back from his UCL surgery, which was performed around this time last year. He is on the 60-day IL and won’t be eligible for a return until late May.
In the short term, their depth is a bit questionable. Jaxon Wiggins is one the top pitching prospects in the league and he is pitching at Triple-A but he still needs to rein in his command. He walked 11.5% of batters faced last year and is up to 13.9% so far in 2026. Kyle Wright and Vince Velasquez are non-roster guys with big league experience but neither has been in the majors since 2023 and Wright is currently on the minor league IL.
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Cubs Place Daniel Palencia On IL With Oblique Strain
The Cubs announced that right-hander Daniel Palencia has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 14th, with a left oblique strain. A corresponding move was not announced and the club’s Friday afternoon game is about to start, so it appears they will play short-handed.
It’s yet another blow for the Cubs, who have been hit by a lot of injuries to their pitching staff lately. In the past two weeks, the bullpen has lost Phil Maton, Hunter Harvey and Ethan Roberts to the IL. It was also reported this week that Porter Hodge, who began the year on the IL, will require season-ending UCL surgery. Those bullpen hits are in addition to a few other knocks on the pitching staff. Starter Cade Horton also required UCL surgery while Matthew Boyd is on the IL at the moment.
It’s unclear how serious Palencia’s injury is but obliques can be tricky and he is a key part of the bullpen. He took over the closer’s job last year, racking up 22 saves. He threw 52 2/3 innings with a 2.91 earned run average. He struck out 28.4% of batters faced while keeping walks down to a 7.4% pace. He started this year strong. He pitched for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, giving them five scoreless innings, helping them lock down their first WBC title. Since the MLB season has started, he has added five scoreless innings for the Cubs.
It’s a little odd to see a guy placed on the IL without a corresponding move, but it may be due to unique circumstances. IL placements can be backdated by three days if the player hasn’t been playing. Palencia last pitched on Sunday, so the Cubs were able to backdate today’s move by the full three days. They haven’t had a save chance for him since then. They lost on Monday, then won blowout victories on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by an off-day on Thursday.
Speculatively speaking, it’s possible that Palencia hurt himself today, not long before game time. The Cubs may not have had enough time to get someone else up from the minors. But since Palencia wasn’t going to be available today anyway, they put him on the IL now. That way, he can theoretically come back in 12 days, if he recovers. If they waited until tomorrow to make the move, his path back would have been delayed by another day. Since the move was made so close to first pitch, the Cubs haven’t provided any details, but may do so after the game.
More to come.
Astros To Select Peter Lambert
Right-hander Peter Lambert will start for the Astros on Friday, with Chandler Rome of The Athletic among those to relay the update. Lambert is not currently on the roster, so he’ll need to be formally added prior to the game.
It’s an early birthday present for Lambert, who turns 29 on Saturday. When he takes the ball, he’ll be making his first major league appearance for a team other than the Rockies. Lambert made 74 appearances for Colorado from 2019 to 2024, throwing 243 2/3 innings and allowing 6.28 earned runs per nine.
At the end of the 2024 season, the Rockies outrighted Lambert off their roster and he elected free agency. He then signed with the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He gave the Swallows 116 1/3 innings over 21 starts with a 4.26 ERA. That may seem like a passable mark but NPB has been a pitcher-friendly league in recent years. Last year’s league-wide ERA was 2.97 in the Central League and 3.04 in the Pacific League, the two main leagues of NPB.
He landed a minor league deal with the Astros in November. He opted out of that deal at the end of camp but re-signed on a fresh minor league deal. He has thrown 14 2/3 Triple-A innings this year over three appearances, allowing three earned runs via 11 hits, three walks and hitting two batters while striking out 12. In that small sample, his 20.3% strikeout rate is subpar but his 5.1% walk rate and 53.7% ground ball rate are strong figures. His four-seamer has averaged 94.5 miles per hour this year and he has also thrown a sinker, cutter, slider, curveball and changeup.
The Astros have been doing a lot of improvising on their pitching staff lately. Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier both landed on the injured list due to shoulder strains. Not long after, Tatsuya Imai hit the IL due to arm fatigue, meaning Houston quickly lost three fifths of the five Opening Day rotation. That forced them to turn to contingency plans but one of those also got bit with the injury bug, as back inflammation put Cody Bolton on the IL.
There’s never a good time for a team to lose four starters but the timing was especially unfortunate in this case as the Astros began a stretch of 13 straight games last Friday. Imai started the first game but lasted just a third of an inning, forcing J.P. France and others to soak up the rest. Lance McCullers Jr. and Mike Burrows are still around from the season-opening group. McCullers took the ball on Saturday and Burrows on Sunday. Bolton went on Monday but lasted just one inning. Colton Gordon was recalled this week and started on Tuesday, giving the club 3 2/3 innings. Spencer Arrighetti was recalled to start Wednesday and went six.
Just now in Thursday’s contest, they effectively did a bullpen game. Ryan Weiss, who had been pitching in long relief, started and went 3 2/3. Christian Roa then absorbed 1 1/3, followed by two frames each from AJ Blubaugh and Kai-Wei Teng.
The Astros still have six more games to get through before their next off-day. Lambert will take the ball tomorrow, followed by McCullers and Burrows. Houston could then perhaps go back to Gordon and Arrighetti in the next two. The final game could again be Lambert, though he is out of options. Depending on how things go tomorrow, it’s possible he may need to be bumped off the roster for a fresh arm. In that case, perhaps another bullpen game headlined by Weiss would be the move, depending on who gets used in the interim.
For tomorrow, as mentioned, corresponding moves will be required to get Lambert onto the roster. The Astros have several guys on the IL and perhaps one of them could be moved to the 60-day IL to open up a 40-man spot if the Astros don’t expect them back anytime soon. The list of pitchers currently on the 15-day IL includes Brown, Javier, Imai and Bolton but also Josh Hader, Nate Pearson and Bennett Sousa. If the club doesn’t want to lock any of those guys into a lengthy IL stint, someone else would have to be bumped off the 40-man. In terms of opening an active roster spot, most of their guys can be optioned, with McCullers, Bryan Abreu, Enyel De Los Santos and Steven Okert the only exceptions.
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Braves Re-Sign Luke Williams To Minor League Deal
The Braves have re-signed Luke Williams to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has been assigned to Triple-A Gwinnett and entered tonight’s game as a pinch runner.
It’s an unsurprising development. Williams is clearly liked by the club as a depth piece but he is out of options, leading to frequent transactions. Williams was added to the roster a few days ago while Michael Harris II went on the paternity list. When Harris came back a few days later, Williams was designated for assignment, cleared waivers and elected free agency. It’s a familiar cycle for him. He was claimed off waivers in the summer of 2023 and, since then, this is the third time he has become a free agency and then quickly re-signed.
Williams hasn’t hit in the majors, with a .212/.272/.280 line in 350 plate appearances. But he provides defensive versatility, with experience at every position on the diamond except catcher. He can also steals some bases, swiping 25 bags in 31 attempts in his big league career.
Atlanta doesn’t have a ton of optionable position player depth on the roster. The only guy on the 40-man who isn’t already in the majors or on the injured list is Nacho Alvarez Jr., who has a .182/.325/.212 line in Triple-A so far this year. If someone on the active roster suffers an injury, Williams will be a candidate to rejoin the big league club.
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Kolby Allard Elects Free Agency
Left-hander Kolby Allard has elected free agency after being sent outright to Triple-A Columbus, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week.
Players have the right to reject outright assignments if they have a previous career outright or at least three years of service time. Allard qualifies on both counts and has exercised his right to head to the open market.
He is free to explore options with other clubs but the most likely outcome is that he re-signs with the Guards on a new minor league deal in the coming days. It’s common for players to return to their former clubs in these instances and that’s especially true with Allard specifically. He has been bouncing on and off the Cleveland roster for the better part of a year now, since he is out of options.
He signed a minor league deal with the club in February of 2025. He was added to the roster in April. In July, he was designated for assignment, elected free agency, re-signed to a new minor league deal and was back on the roster in less than a week. He was outrighted again at season’s end, then signed a new minor league deal ahead of this year’s spring training. He was added to the roster in late March and lasted on the roster for a couple of weeks before Monday’s DFA.
The transactions are probably not pleasant but Allard is presumably happy to get some major league pay and service time. The Guards, meanwhile, get some extra depth by keeping the relationship with Allard going.
Last year’s results were excellent, in that he tossed 65 innings as a swingman, allowing 2.63 earned runs per nine. That kind of run prevention wasn’t sustainable when he was only striking out 15.8% of batters faced, which is why he cleared waivers multiple times. This year’s results have been far worse, in a much smaller sample. He logged 8 2/3 innings over four appearances, allowing ten earned runs.
Perhaps news of a new deal with the Guards will emerge in the coming days, though there are several other clubs dealing with injuries, so the possibility of him signing elsewhere can’t be entirely ruled out.
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Mark Canha Released From Rangers Deal
9:41pm: Canha has now been granted his release, per Grant.
8:45pm: Veteran first baseman/outfielder Mark Canha has asked to be released from his minor league deal with the Rangers, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Canha is hoping to pursue big league deals with other clubs.
Canha, 37, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in February. He had a solid spring, slashing .286/.318/.500, but didn’t break camp with the club. The Rangers effectively had a battle for their final roster spot between Canha and Andrew McCutchen, but the latter won out.
Canha had an opt-out in his deal at the end of spring training and could have returned to free agency at that point, but he and the Rangers agreed to an arrangement that worked for both of them. As reported by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News at the end of March, Canha preferred not to go on the road with a minor league club. He agreed to stay with the Rangers in extended spring training in Surprise, Arizona. Since his full-time home is in nearby Scottsdale, he could stay with his family while maintaining game readiness by facing minor leaguers.
That allowed the club to hold onto some veteran depth in case an injury popped up, but it hasn’t. Almost three weeks have passed since that arrangement was made and, in the interim, the Rangers have been fortunate in terms of health on the position player side. Cody Freeman has been on the injured list all year due to a lower back fracture suffered back in February. No other position player has joined him on the IL since the season began.
Despite the health, there are some gaps in the performance. McCutchen isn’t out to a great start, working primarily as the short side of a designated hitter platoon with Joc Pederson, in addition to occasional outfield work. It’s a small sample of 28 plate appearances but he has struck out 12 times, a 42.9% clip, while his one walk is a 3.6% pace. His .222/.250/.407 line translates to an 84 wRC+.
Theoretically, Canha could be subbed in for McCutchen in that role, since he is also a veteran righty bat. But whether Canha can provide more than McCutchen is a fair question. With the Royals last year, Canha slashed .212/.272/.265, production which translated to a 49 wRC+. He was released in August and didn’t sign anywhere else in the final few weeks of the season. As mentioned, he had a decent spring but it’s hard to say what form he is in now since he hasn’t been playing in official game action.
If the Rangers grant Canha his release, it’s hard to see him landing an immediate major league offer, based on his most recent big league action and the fact that he hasn’t been playing in official games for a few weeks. He would almost certainly receive some minor league offers but it’s unclear if his appetite for riding the bus has increased in the past few weeks.
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Padres Option Sung-Mun Song
The Padres announced that infielder Sung-Mun Song has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A El Paso. He began the season on the IL due to a right oblique strain and had remained there until this transaction.
Song, 29, spent most of the past decade as a regular in the KBO League in South Korea. He was posted for MLB clubs in the offseason and landed with the Padres, securing a $15MM guarantee on a four-year deal.
It’s unusual for players signed to eight-figure, multi-year free agent deals to be optioned to the minors, but there are some unique circumstances at play here. Most players who sign such deals are MLB veterans who reached free agency by getting to six years of service time. Such players can’t be optioned to the minors without their consent. Players coming over from leagues in other countries will sometimes have language in their contracts giving them the same ability to veto minor league assignments. In this case, it appears that Song doesn’t have such protection.
It’s also possible the Padres want Song to get regular reps in the minors, as opposed to being in a part-time role in the big leagues. He suffered his oblique injury way back in January, before spring training games even began. He did eventually get into eight Cactus League contests but then the oblique issue flared up again, leading to his IL stint. He began a rehab assignment shortly after Opening Day, on March 27th. Rehab assignments for position players come with a 20-day maximum, so the Friars had to make a decision on him.
Adding Song would have likely meant designating someone for assignment. Of their 13 position players, the only three with options are Jackson Merrill, Freddy Fermin and Gavin Sheets. Those three are all regular parts of the lineup and wouldn’t be candidates for a stint in the minors. A bench player like Bryce Johnson, Ty France or Nick Castellanos would need the DFA treatment to squeeze in Song.
The Friars could have gone that route, especially with Castellanos and Johnson struggling, but Song hasn’t exactly been forcing the issue. He has been drawing walks on his rehab assignment but hasn’t been hitting the ball with authority. Of his 16 hits, only two of them have been for extra bases, both doubles. His .276/.364/.310 slash line translates to a 78 wRC+ in the hitter-friendly environment of the Pacific Coast League. He hit 26 homers in the KBO last year and 19 the year prior, so he should be capable of more than that.
There’s also the fact that the Padres are expanding Song’s versatility. In the KBO, he played the three non-shortstop positions. The Friars are getting him some action at second, third and shortstop. They had also considered him for some outfield work, though they put that plan on ice while Song was dealing with the oblique injury and he hasn’t yet played any outfield for El Paso.
Even if the Padres made space for Song in the big leagues, he wouldn’t find a ton of playing time behind the regular infield of third baseman Manny Machado, shortstop Xander Bogaerts and second baseman Jake Cronenworth, especially since they seem willing to play Fernando Tatis Jr. at second base from time to time.
Add it all up and there’s logic to the decision. Song can get regular playing time for El Paso, which will hopefully wake up his bat while also getting him more exposure to shortstop. Perhaps they will revisit the idea of the outfield experiment. The big league club, meanwhile, can hang onto everyone currently on the roster.
One thing that isn’t at play is service time manipulation. Most contracts for players coming from Japan or South Korea contain language making it clear that the player will be a free agent when the contract expires, regardless of major league service time. That is indeed the case for Song’s deal with the Padres, per Ronald Blum of The Associated Press.
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Orioles Recall Cameron Foster For MLB Debut
The Orioles announced that right-hander Cameron Foster has been recalled from Triple-A Norfolk. He’ll be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. Catcher Maverick Handley was optioned to Norfolk in the corresponding active roster move.
It’s a bit unusual for a pitcher to be swapped in for a position player. 26-man rosters have a 13-pitcher limit and teams are almost always at that maximum. The O’s briefly went to a split of 14 position players and 12 hurlers yesterday when they selected catcher Sam Huff, with lefty Nick Raquet optioned out. This move gets them back to an even 13-13 split, with Huff sticking around to form the catching duo with Samuel Basallo while Adley Rutschman is on the injured list.
The move to get back to a full eight-man bullpen gets Foster, 27, up to the big leagues for the first time. The O’s acquired him from the Mets at last year’s deadline in the trade that sent Gregory Soto to Queens. The O’s then added him to their 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He came into big league camp in spring training but was optioned to Norfolk in March.
A 14th-round pick of the Mets in 2022, he mostly worked as a starter in 2023 and for parts of 2024 as well. 2025 was the first full season where he was focused on relief work. He pitched 46 1/3 innings on the year between the two clubs, and also split between Double-A and Triple-A. He had a combined 3.11 earned run average. He struck out 32.6% of batters faced, a huge mark, while his 8.4% walk rate was around league average.
He featured five different pitches at the Triple-A level last year, per Statcast. His four-seamer and sinker averaged in the mid-90s, while he mixed in a cutter, slider and curveball. So far this year, he has thrown six Triple-A innings. The seven earned runs give him an unsightly 10.50 ERA but his three home runs allowed might have tilted that number in a small sample. He has eight strikeouts to one walk, which is encouraging.
As mentioned, the O’s were playing with a seven-man bullpen yesterday. They used five of those relievers in their 10-inning loss to the Diamondbacks. The only two who didn’t pitch were Rico Garcia and Albert Suárez. Garcia had pitched the two prior games on Monday and Tuesday. Suárez is the long man and threw 40 pitches on Monday.
In short, they needed a fresh arm, so Foster may have a decent chance of making his first big league appearance tonight. Since this is his first season on the 40-man, he has a full slate of options and could be shuffled between Norfolk and Baltimore a few times this year.
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Rockies Place Kyle Freeland On IL
The Rockies announced today that left-hander Kyle Freeland has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 13th, due to left shoulder inflammation. Fellow lefty Jose Quintana was reinstated from his own stint on the IL as a corresponding move.
Freeland was scheduled to start for the Rockies three days ago but he was scratched due to some tightness in his shoulder. Details on his health are still not clear but the Rockies will let him rest up for at least a few turns through the rotation.
It’s an unfortunate setback for Freeland personally. He was out to a strong start this year, with a 2.30 earned run average through his first three appearances. But beyond that, this reduces the chances of him triggering his $17MM vesting player option for 2027.
Unlocking the player option was always going to be tough, as Freeland needs to throw 170 innings this year. That’s a mark he has hit only twice in his career. Way back in 2018, he got to 202 1/3 innings. His second-best season in that category was 2022, when he only barely got there, finishing at 174 2/3. Last year, a minimal stint on the IL for a back injury knocked him out for 15 days. He took the ball 31 times and logged 162 2/3 innings.
Naturally, Freeland’s best path to hitting that benchmark would be to stay healthy and pitch deep into games. Any kind of injury setback, even a small one, reduces his chances of getting to that line.
Presumably, the Rockies wouldn’t want him to trigger that option. They are rebuilding, having lost 119 games last year, and don’t have strong motivation to spend at that level on a starting pitcher. They did bolster the rotation this winter by signing some pitchers but all to notably lower salaries than that. They gave Michael Lorenzen $8MM, Quintana $6MM and Tomoyuki Sugano $5.1MM. Even if they are willing to bring back Freeland next year, it would make sense for them to prefer to negotiate a salary, as opposed to Freeland having the freedom to just lock in $17MM.
In terms of the on-field results, it’s not a huge deal in the short term. Quintana missed a couple of weeks with a hamstring strain but slots right into Freeland’s position in the rotation. He is taking the ball tonight, followed by Sugano, Ryan Feltner, Chase Dollander and then Lorenzen.
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Jared Young To Undergo Meniscus Surgery
The Mets announced that infielder/outfielder Jared Young has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 13th, due to a left meniscus tear. Outfielder MJ Melendez has been recalled to take his place on the roster. Young will undergo surgery, per Will Sammon of The Athletic. The team has not announced an expected recovery timeline.
It’s an unfortunate blow for both Young and the Mets. For Young personally, he was getting some big league time and making the most of it. He has usually hit well in the minors but came into this season as a 30-year-old with just 116 big league plate appearances. Injuries to Mike Tauchman, Juan Soto and Jorge Polanco opened up some playing time with the Mets this year. Young stepped up to take 23 plate appearances and produced a .350/.391/.450 line.
Unfortunately, his season will now be on pause for a while. Meniscus surgeries usually require a couple of months of recovery, give or take. For instance, Tauchman is also out due to meniscus surgery and his recovery will reportedly take six weeks.
Young’s path to playing time in the future will depend upon what else happens on the roster. Soto’s calf strain isn’t considered overly serious, so he’ll likely be back in the outfield before Young is healthy. Polanco’s Achilles injury has kept him primarily in the designated hitter slot, which has allowed Mark Vientos and Young to pick up some start at first base.
For now, Melendez comes up and will be making his Mets debut as soon as he gets in a game. A longtime member of the Royals, he signed a big league deal with the Mets in the offseason but has been on optional assignment so far this year. He has a subpar .216/.286/.431 line at Triple-A, which isn’t too far off his major league career line of .215/.297/.388.
The Mets will likely utilize a rotation of Carson Benge, Brett Baty, Luis Robert Jr., Tommy Pham, Tyrone Taylor and Melendez in the outfield, while Vientos might get more starts at first base. They don’t really have a clear depth infielder on the bench but Baty has experience at second and third, while third baseman Bo Bichette appears to be the emergency shortstop behind Francisco Lindor.
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