Oh No: Cade Horton Out for Season, to Undergo UCL Surgery

[Rcal10]

3 minutes ago, Gjfificifjdej said:

Completely valid points, I just see a lot of last years problems. Side note, yes, Jays fans are absolutely losing their minds over the start they have had. 

Trust me, I am frustrated too. But I have been following the Cubs for a long time. I also know teams, all of them, go through stretches where people lose their minds because they are not playing well. I tend to always lean into career norms when I get concerned. Most times guys get back to their norm. And the Cubs norm would project to a very good offense. Would love for them to be 5-2 now. But, TBH, even if they were at some point they would struggle and unease would return. Long season, I am going to try to just enjoy it. But there will be ups and downs. 

[UMFan83]

Reports starting to trickle out about Horton’s MRI and it’s…not good

 

[17 Seconds]

it's hard to complain too much when our injury prone starters get hurt. the brewers lost their gm, manager, and a million great players without missing a beat

 

Edited April 7 by 17 Seconds

[Wilson A2000]

15 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Reports starting to trickle out about Horton’s MRI and it’s…not good

 

If it’s TJ, two of them before age 25 is never good

[Wilson A2000]

6 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

it's hard to complain too much when our injury prone starters get hurt. the brewers lost their gm, manager, and a million great players without missing a beat

 

They actually got better somehow

[Cubs420psd]

Yeah there goes any chance of any kind of deep run.

Pinning your hopes on arms like Horton and Boyd always had a high potential of blowing up in your face.

 

Only chance now is if Steele comes back and dominates, but that probably wouldn't even be enough.

 

[Cubs420psd]

13 minutes ago, 17 Seconds said:

it's hard to complain too much when our injury prone starters get hurt. the brewers lost their gm, manager, and a million great players without missing a beat

 

Yea and the Cubs have Counsell 10 mil thinking he was the reason lol

[Irrelevant Dude]

Potentially losing 2-ish years of Cade on the front end after already losing 1 year on the back end due to him finishing 2nd in ROY certainly isn't ideal.

[Jason Ross]

Horton is probably down for 2026. We can doom boner left and right about it, but the team isn't dead in the water. This is what happens when you have pitchers who throw like Horton. You either pick up a lot of soft tossers or you buy a lot of power arms and sometimes they blow up. 

 

Your best case is probably a Steele situation where it's a brace and not a full repair. 

 

They have Steele on the mend and Wiggins is progressing and can help sometime this year too. They have enough depth to tread water for a bit. But they're probably going to have to take it on the chin a bit through April and then battle back beyond that. None of this is ideal, but the team isn't so dependent on Horton being good that it's a season ender in a vacuum. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

The team does not have the pen to pick up the slack. This could spiral fast. 

[chibears55]

1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

Reports starting to trickle out about Horton’s MRI and it’s…not good

 

Starting to give me Brailyn Marquez vibes now, another solid young starter getting bit by the injury bug.

It like the Mark Prior curse 🙄🙄🙄😕

[Brian707]

55 minutes ago, Cubs420psd said:

Yeah there goes any chance of any kind of deep run.

 

 

[chibears55]

2 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

The team does not have the pen to pick up the slack. This could spiral fast. 

Pen and inconsistent offense, the schedule gets tougher next week, they can find themselves 10 back of Brewers in May if they dont get it going.

[CubinNY]

52 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Horton is probably down for 2026. We can doom boner left and right about it, but the team isn't dead in the water. This is what happens when you have pitchers who throw like Horton. You either pick up a lot of soft tossers or you buy a lot of power arms and sometimes they blow up. 

 

Your best case is probably a Steele situation where it's a brace and not a full repair. 

 

They have Steele on the mend and Wiggins is progressing and can help sometime this year too. They have enough depth to tread water for a bit. But they're probably going to have to take it on the chin a bit through April and then battle back beyond that. None of this is ideal, but the team isn't so dependent on Horton being good that it's a season ender in a vacuum. 

Wiggins is progressing? 

[Outshined_One]

7 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

Wiggins is progressing? 

I'll put it this way, you'd be swapping one hard throwing guy with a checkered injury history for another.

[Irrelevant Dude]

5 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

I'll put it this way, you'd be swapping one hard throwing guy with a checkered injury history for another.

That's fine, but if he's going to get hurt he's going to get hurt.  No reason to waste innings in the minors if he is capable of coming up and getting outs.

[gflore34]

1 hour ago, Jason Ross said:

Horton is probably down for 2026. We can doom boner left and right about it, but the team isn't dead in the water. This is what happens when you have pitchers who throw like Horton. You either pick up a lot of soft tossers or you buy a lot of power arms and sometimes they blow up. 

 

Your best case is probably a Steele situation where it's a brace and not a full repair. 

 

They have Steele on the mend and Wiggins is progressing and can help sometime this year too. They have enough depth to tread water for a bit. But they're probably going to have to take it on the chin a bit through April and then battle back beyond that. None of this is ideal, but the team isn't so dependent on Horton being good that it's a season ender in a vacuum. 

I think many of us saw the writing on the wall with Horton.  An injury waiting to happen, have take what you can get from him but, never count on his availability.  It'll never be a thing with Horton, in fact, I make a prediction - he'll never pitch more than 150 innings in a season.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

man, I was really hoping the armchair doctors were wrong

[Derwood]

This is why he was on an innings count last year (and even that didn't help)

[Cubs420psd]

13 minutes ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

man, I was really hoping the armchair doctors were wrong

All I needed to hear was Horton had tears in his eyes and I knew it was bad bad.

 

Hes been injured before, he knows how it feels, so when he reacts like that you know its no good.

[Cubs420psd]

7 minutes ago, Derwood said:

This is why he was on an innings count last year (and even that didn't help)

It usually never does.

 

Baseball/medical people have no idea how to avoid arm injuries. They're just throwing stuff at the wall to see what will stick. Cade Horton has been babied the second he came to this organization and its done absolutely nothing.

Edited April 7 by Cubs420psd

[gflore34]

Ultimately, should Horton ever return, is his best role in the bullpen? 

[We Got The Whole 9]

Just now, Cubs420psd said:

It usually never does.

 

These guys have no idea how to avoid arm injury. They're just throwing stuff at the wall to see what will stick.

By these guys do you mean every person in existence? The Cubs literally had the lowest TJ rate for the 10 years prior to last season. Their method was basically, don't draft power pitchers. The best method is to load up on so many power pitchers that you have 10 more at your disposal at every turn.

[CubinNY]

6 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

Ultimately, should Horton ever return, is his best role in the bullpen? 

yes

[Cubs420psd]

5 minutes ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

By these guys do you mean every person in existence? The Cubs literally had the lowest TJ rate for the 10 years prior to last season. Their method was basically, don't draft power pitchers. The best method is to load up on so many power pitchers that you have 10 more at your disposal at every turn.

I mean baseball/medical people in general.