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    Oh No: Cade Horton Leaves in 2nd Inning of Cubs Game Against Guardians

    Arguably, the best reason to believe the 2026 Cubs can overcome the Milwaukee Brewers to win the NL Central—and, indeed, to make a deep run in October—is the presence of Cade Horton at the top of their rotation. On Friday, Horton felt something and left his start abruptly. Yikes.

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    The Cubs amassed pretty good starting rotation depth this winter, all things considered. They entered the season with a fully healthy group of five: Matthew Boyd, Cade Horton, Shota Imanaga, Edward Cabreras and Jameson Taillon. Behind them, as depth, the team has Colin Rea and Ben Brown in the big-league bullpen and Javier Assad waiting in the Triple-A Iowa rotation. You can't be much better-positioned to withstand an injury than that, in the modern game, especially given that the team will get Justin Steele back after his 2025 Tommy John surgery, sometime this summer.

    Take the best arm out of any pitching staff, though, and it looks a lot weaker, immediately. That might be what the Cubs are facing now. On Friday, Cade Horton departed in the middle of an at-bat in the bottom of the second inning, feeling obvious discomfort and calling the trainer to the mound before leaving. His fastball velocity nosed down sharply immediately before he left, too.

    We'll update when we know more about what's happening, but it's not too early to harbor deep concerns here. Should Horton miss significant time, the Cubs would be without their ace and the rest of the rotation would immediately seem stretched and strained—just as they were around this time last year, when they lost Steele.

    UPDATE: If you were hoping the issue was a simple blister or that Horton was dealing with a lingering cold or flu, you'll have to let that hope go. The issue is in his forearm, the team announced.

     

    Now, the question is of severity. A trip to the injured list is virtually guaranteed, any time a pitcher leaves a game with a forearm problem. Presumably, Horton will be sent for imaging, and much of the Cubs' upside for this season will hinge on the outcome thereof.

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    Featured Comments

    UMFan83

    Posted

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

     

    IMG_3990.jpeg

    17 Seconds

    Posted (edited)

    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 by 17 Seconds
    Wilson A2000

    Posted

    15 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

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

     

    IMG_3990.jpeg

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

    Wilson A2000

    Posted

    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

    Posted

    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

    Posted

    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

    Posted

    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

    Posted

    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

    Posted

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

    chibears55

    Posted

    1 hour ago, UMFan83 said:

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

     

    IMG_3990.jpeg

    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

    Posted

    55 minutes ago, Cubs420psd said:

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

     

     

    Seth Meyers Ok GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers

    chibears55

    Posted

    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

    Posted

    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

    Posted

    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.

    • Like 1
    Irrelevant Dude

    Posted

    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

    Posted

    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.

    • Like 1
    Derwood

    Posted

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

    Cubs420psd

    Posted

    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

    Posted (edited)

    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 by Cubs420psd
    gflore34

    Posted

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

    We Got The Whole 9

    Posted

    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

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

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

    yes

    Cubs420psd

    Posted

    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.

    Cubs420psd

    Posted

    7 minutes ago, gflore34 said:

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

    Yep.

     

    Move him to bullpen and get it over with. Maybe he can end up being a high leverage stud.




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