{"id":583943,"date":"2026-04-04T00:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T00:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583943\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T00:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T00:45:18","slug":"cubs-place-cade-horton-on-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/583943\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs Place Cade Horton On Injured List"},"content":{"rendered":"

6:17pm: Skipper Craig Counsell tells Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic<\/a> that Horton will go for imaging this weekend. The team will know once the results come back, but the righty will land on the 15-day injured list in any case.<\/p>\n

3:56pm: Cubs righty Cade Horton<\/a> exited today\u2019s start after calling for a trainer in the second inning. The Chicago Tribune\u2019s Meghan Montemurro points out<\/a> that Horton\u2019s final pitch was a fastball that clocked in about two miles per hour shy of his season average. Taylor McGregor of the Marquee Sports Network adds<\/a> that the Cubs are calling Horton\u2019s injury right forearm discomfort.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an ominous development for a Cubs team that opened the season without ace Justin Steele<\/a>, who is still on the mend from last April\u2019s UCL surgery. Horton, 24, was the National League Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2025 after kicking down the door to the majors with a 2.67 ERA in his first 118 big league frames. The 2022 No. 7 overall pick\u2019s 20.4% strikeout rate was a couple percentage points shy of average, but he offset that with strong command (6.9% walk rate), an average ground-ball rate (42.3%) and a knack for avoiding hard contact. He\u2019s pitched 7 1\/3 innings this season between his debut and today\u2019s abbreviated start. Opponents have two runs on four hits and a walk.<\/p>\n

Obviously, it\u2019s too soon to say whether Horton will miss an extended period of time \u2014 if he misses any at all. Even a short-term IL stint would sting, however. The rest of the Chicago rotation includes Matthew Boyd<\/a>, Jameson Taillon<\/a>, Shota Imanaga<\/a> and trade acquisition Edward Cabrera<\/a>. Steele and former first-rounder Jordan Wicks<\/a> are both on the injured list already.<\/p>\n

Veteran swingman Colin Rea<\/a> is in the bullpen and could start in the short term if the Cubs need. He filled in admirably last year when injuries piled up on the starting staff. Rea posted a 4.33 ERA in 27 starts last season and a 0.56 ERA in 16 relief innings. He was manager Craig Counsell<\/a>\u2018s go-to option today as well, taking over after Horton\u2019s exit. Righty Ben Brown<\/a> worked as a starter in camp and is still stretched out for multiple innings as well; he\u2019s tossed 6 2\/3 frames in two appearances this season.<\/p>\n

Looking further down the depth chart, righty Javier Assad<\/a> is in Triple-A and already on the 40-man roster. He\u2019s pitched to a 3.43 ERA in 331 major league innings, mostly out of the rotation, though injuries limited him to 55 1\/3 innings between Triple-A and the big leagues last year. Top prospect Jaxon Wiggins<\/a> is also in Triple-A but would need to be added to the 40-man roster. Veterans Kyle Wright<\/a> and Vince Velasquez<\/a> also opened the season with the Cubs\u2019 top affiliate in Des Moines after signing minor league deals in the winter. Either could be called upon as short-term replacements, although like Wiggins, they\u2019d need to be added to the 40-man roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"6:17pm: Skipper Craig Counsell tells Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic that Horton will go for imaging this weekend.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,16081,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-583943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cade-horton","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}