CHICAGO — Prior to Sunday’s regular-season finale against the St. Louis Cardinals, injured Chicago Cubs starter Cade Horton spoke to the media for the first time since it was revealed he would be sidelined indefinitely with a broken rib.

Horton reiterated what manager Craig Counsell and team president Jed Hoyer had both said earlier in the week: that no singular incident led to the injury.

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” Horton said. “I think it was just a perfect storm. There wasn’t one pitch, there wasn’t one cough. I think it was just the combination of fatigue, cough, then I go out and throw 98 (mph). I don’t think there was any protecting it, I think it was just a matter of when.”

As Counsell had shared, Horton was sick while the Cubs were in Cincinnati last weekend. He was dealing with “a cough and a lot of fatigue.” However, by Tuesday’s scheduled start against the New York Mets at home, Horton felt he was good to go.

“(I) felt like I got over it,” Horton said. “When I was playing catch, nothing out of the ordinary. When I finished playing catch, it was tough to breathe. (But) I was sick, so (I) didn’t really think too much about it. And then I went into the game and felt something tightening up in my ribs. Never really thought that it would be what it is.”

Horton left Tuesday’s start after three innings with what was described at the time as back tightness. Horton went for an MRI on Wednesday, the results of which showed an “area of concern” in the ribs, but all signs pointed toward Horton still being able to go. He threw on Friday, and before Saturday’s throwing session, Counsell said a bullpen was scheduled for Sunday.

But Saturday’s throwing session did not go as hoped and was cut short. That led to the decision to put Horton on the injured list, meaning the earliest he could return would be for a potential Game 5 of the National League Division Series.

“I thought I could do it,” Horton said. “(Saturday) I just felt like I wasn’t going to be my sharpest. We got a really good rotation; these guys can do it. It sucks, but I didn’t want to put myself at more risk.”



Horton explained that the concern is not the worsening of the current injury, but another injury occurring.

“When you have that, it’s not going to break any more, but also you compensate,” Horton said. “Then it could be my elbow, it could be somewhere else. So it’s just a lot of risk involved. The bone itself isn’t going to get worse. It just puts everything else at risk.”

Despite being a rookie, Horton has emerged as the Cubs best starter with a brilliant second half. Since the All-Star break, Horton has been one of the best pitchers in baseball, posting a 1.03 ERA over 12 starts. At the time of the injury, Horton was at a combined 147 innings between his time at Triple A and his MLB workload, nearly 60 innings over his previous professional career high. But the Cubs were being incredibly careful with the young righty, consistently keeping him at around 75 pitches and not pushing him deeper than six innings in hopes that he’d be fresh for the playoffs.

Horton tried hard to push through the injury, but in the end, he’s going to be watching from the sidelines during the club’s NL Wild Card Series against the San Diego Padres, if not longer. The Cubs have veteran options they trust to make those starts, including All-Star Matthew Boyd, Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon.

“All I can do is be a really good teammate and try to get healthy in the next week,” Horton said. “Just keep taking it day by day. I got a lot of belief in these guys. I think we’ll be in a good spot.”

If the Cubs advance to the NLCS, Horton would be eligible for the entire series. Is a return this postseason even a possibility for Horton?

“We’re just taking it day by day right now,” Horton said. “We’ll see where we’re at in 15 days. It’s really just about getting it to calm down. Let it heal a little bit and go from there. I thought I could do it this week. Turns out I can’t, so we’ll just reevaluate.”

(Photo: Justin Berl / Getty Images)