Oof: Cubs Starter Cade Horton Out Indefinitely with Fractured Rib

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Depending on whom you asked, Cade Horton was in line to start either Game 1 or Game 2 of the upcoming Wild Card Series for the Chicago Cubs, who hope to be hosting that best-of-three set against the San Diego Padres. Horton has been the team's best starter over the last two months, as he's adjusted to major-league hitters and tapped into the full value of his ever-deepening arsenal and plus command. Unfortunately, now, he's out of those plans entirely—and his season is likely over.

The Cubs placed Horton on the 15-day injured list Saturday, with a fractured rib. The righty was lifted after three innings of his start against the Mets early this week, dealing with soreness in his side; subsequent imaging revealed the crack and attempts to work through the pain proved fruitless. The team recalled lefty Jordan Wicks to take Horton's place on the active roster for the weekend, although Wicks is not likely to make the playoff roster.

That pretty well locks Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga into the first two spots in the team's rotation for the series against San Diego. They make good matchups for the Padres lineup, anyway, especially after San Diego lost right-hitting outfielder Ramón Laureano at least through the Wild Card Series. However, Horton feels like a major loss, because his starts had become such spectacles of efficiency and sheer attitude on the mound. Making do without him will mean stretching the team's pitching depth in some new and creative ways.

Craig Counsell will still have options. The starters who look best-positioned to pick up the slack where Horton leaves room are Jameson Taillon and Colin Rea, but the team can (and will) also turn to both Javier Assad and Michael Soroka to make multi-inning appearances, if their run into October goes long enough. That quartet will try to buttress Boyd and Imanaga and form a bridge to the back end of the bullpen, where lefties Caleb Thielbar, Drew Pomeranz and Taylor Rogers will counterbalance righties Brad Keller, Daniel Palencia and Andrew Kittredge. All 12 pitchers are now likely to make the Wild Card roster. It's a relatively deep corps, though a few of them will only be trusted to pitch in perfect matchups or when the situation affords some margin for error.

Horton could return if the team advances, especially if they make it as far as the NLCS. However, there are a lot of hard wins to earn between here and there, and Horton has run into this wall (figurative or literal) after throwing 147 innings between Triple-A Iowa and the majors. That's more than twice as many as he threw in 2024. If he can get right, the team will try to bring him back in some role, but it's no longer reasonable even to dream of a full-fledged starting Horton at any point in October. He'll be a minor contributor, if he's a contributor at all.

The team also has Aaron Civale, Ben Brown, Porter Hodge, Eli Morgan and Wicks on hand as potential backfillers for the spot being vacated by Horton, but for various reasons, it's unlikely any of them will pitch much in the playoffs. It says a lot that it was Wicks, and not Brown or Hodge, whom the team called up when Horton officially went down. The wild card (so to speak) is righty pitching prospect Jaxon Wiggins, one of the hurlers to whom the team cleaved tightly during negotiations for potential rotation upgrades in July. There's a seasonal workload issue to consider with Wiggins, too, and it's overwhelmingly unlikely that he'll make the playoff roster, but he's the one hurler with an arm of similar promise to Horton's, whom the team might call up in the stead of their star rookie.

For now, the club's focus will remain on winning Saturday to sew up home-field advantage over San Diego. If they can do that, they'll worry about how to get the requisite outs to advance. Then, they'll worry about how to overcome the Brewers. At this time of year, it's all about short-term planning. Unfortunately, that means leaving the summer of Cade Horton behind, and facing a fall without him. Fortunately, though, the team has the privilege of worrying about this, as opposed to turning its gaze toward the winter, as most teams have already begun to do.

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[Victor Reichman]

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