Cubs Have To Move Forward After New Cade Horton Injury

After only 17 pitches in his second start of the season, there’s already concern over how the rest of 2026 will look for Cade Horton.

Against the Cleveland Guardians on Friday, Horton worked a clean, 10-pitch first inning. His four-seamer averaged 96.1 mph. Then he issued a walk to start the second, and his second pitch to the next batter, another four-seamer, hit 93.8 mph.

Horton immediately looked into the dugout. That brought Carson Kelly out from behind the plate, along with manager Craig Counsell and trainer Nick Frangella. The conversation didn’t last too long before Horton walked off the mound, ending his day.

The Chicago Cubs later announced that he left the game with right forearm discomfort. Horton told reporters in Cleveland postgame that he felt tightness in his wrist. As the game went on, it started to move into his forearm.

Having been through his share of injuries, including a UCL tear that required Tommy John surgery in 2021 while at the University of Oklahoma, he “just wanted to err on the cautious side and really not try to hurt anything else.”

”I just wanted to be smart about it,” Horton added. “I’ve been in this spot before, and I’ve taken the other route, where I keep going and then it ends up being worse. I just tried to make a mature decision and end it there.”

Counsell told reporters that Horton will head back to Chicago and get checked out in the coming days. He officially went on the 15-day injured list Sunday (retroactive to Saturday), and the Cubs will await the results of imaging before determining next steps.

Both did express some optimism that it might not be as bad as it first appeared.

Said Horton: “I’m pretty hopeful. Like I said, I’m erring on the cautious side. I feel like I made the right move, even though it sucks doing that and putting the bullpen and everybody else in that situation.”

Said Counsell: “I think we gotta wait to see what we got here. There’s reason to be optimistic that this is something minor. It’s gonna be an IL stint, but it can be minor, and then we can have him back out pitching relatively soon. Let’s get more information before we talk about that.”

Still, as Counsell said, “You take a pitcher out of the game in the second inning, you’re concerned.” Until Horton’s results come back, those concerns will remain.

It’s a tough blow for the 24-year-old. He’s a rising arm, a potential frontline starter of the future for Chicago. Despite major elbow surgery five years ago, he ended up being the Cubs’ first-round draft pick (No. 7 overall) in 2022 and was one of the top pitching prospects in baseball by 2024.

Last year, Horton made his MLB debut in mid-May, and by the end of the season, he was 11-4 with a 2.67 ERA. That earned him a National League Rookie of the Year runner-up finish.

But his 2025 ended prematurely due to a rib injury. Horton ultimately sat out Chicago’s entire postseason run, which had to eat at him throughout the winter. It was clear entering this season that both he and the Cubs expect him to be a key contributor to helping this ball club reach potentially even higher heights.

This isn’t to say Horton won’t be that contributor. He could very well be correct in his hope that he caught this ailment early. Again, until we have an official diagnosis, nothing is off the table.

But, if he misses extended time, what happens?

How the Cubs Can ‘Replace’ Horton

Put “replace” in quotes because it’s not really an easy thing to do. Finding starting pitching is hard enough. Finding young, talented arms with top-of-the-rotation potential is even harder.

So, there isn’t necessarily a one-to-one replacement for Horton readily available.

Fortunately, the Cubs have plenty of recent experience dealing with injury issues. Last season, Shota Imanaga spent nearly two months on the shelf with a left hamstring strain. Jameson Taillon missed roughly two months with a pair of IL stints. And of course, Justin Steele made only four starts before getting season-ending elbow surgery.

Losing three of your top starters for extended periods of time isn’t easy to maneuver. But Chicago founds way to stay afloat.

Horton played a part in that throughout his excellent rookie season. The other main arm who stepped up was the same one who took over for Horton on Friday: Colin Rea.

Thrust into the rotation probably earlier than the Cubs would’ve hoped, Rea delivered a 3.95 ERA over 32 games (27 starts). He proved to be a consistent presence while Chicago dealt with its starter injuries.

”A season requires people to step up if you want to accomplish your goals,” Counsell said. “You’d like to avoid it for as long as you can during a season, and hopefully, the things that happen are not like in Steele’s case. But you need guys to step up, and certainly, Colin did that last year for us.”

Whether it’s a minimum stint or Horton misses extended time, someone will need to step up. Rea appears to be the top option to slot in. Others are Ben Brown, who’s currently in the bullpen, and Javier Assad, who’s staying stretched out at Triple-A.

With only one start with Iowa under his belt, it’s probably too early to call up top pitching prospect Jaxon Wiggins. If a need is still there later in the season, then he’d become more of an option. Steele isn’t one at the moment, considering he can’t return until May 24 at the earliest, but he should still beef up the rotation whenever he comes back (whether Horton is there or not).

The Cubs still have talent in the group, with Imanaga, Taillon, 2025 All-Star Matthew Boyd and offseason acquisition Edward Cabrera making up 80% of the current starters. With depth pieces behind Horton, however much time he ultimately misses, Chicago feels good about its ability to move forward.

“You need depth from your starting pitching, because that’s the hardest thing to replace,” Counsell said. “And you don’t replace people like Cade, but we feel like, at least the next time through, whoever starts, we’ll have a strong option and go from there.”