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player ready...CLEVELAND — Cade Horton walking off the field with a trainer barely five batters into his second start of the season quickly became a troubling sequence for the Chicago Cubs.
Horton, mid at-bat during the second inning of Friday’s 4-1 loss to the Cleveland Guardians, eyed the Cubs dugout following a 1-1 pitch to Bo Naylor, prompting a visit from manager Craig Counsell and head trainer Nick Frangella. Horton immediately headed into the clubhouse with right forearm discomfort that Counsell said will land the right-hander on the injured list.
The last pitch Horton threw, a 93.8-mph fastball, notably was nearly 2 mph below his average fastball velocity. Horton will return to Chicago for imaging and to be examined, likely undergoing evaluation Monday.
“I’m pretty hopeful,” Horton said. “I’m erring on the cautious side so I feel like I made the right move, even though it sucks doing that and putting the bullpen and everybody else in that situation.”
Horton initially experienced tightness in his wrist that progressed to his forearm as the brief outing progressed. He indicated it emerged during the game, rather than something he felt before Friday, and wanted to make a mature decision to end his day there before the situation worsened.
“I feel like I do everything the right way to try to stay healthy and things pop up,” a monotone Horton said. “So I just have to deal with them and move on.”
Horton, 24, was stellar in his season debut Saturday at Wrigley Field. He held the Washington Nationals to two runs and four hits in 6 1/3 innings, efficiently using 75 pitches to get into the seventh while walking one and striking out four.
“You take a pitcher out of the game in the second inning, you’re concerned,” Counsell said. “We’re going to likely make a roster move here, and we’ll see where that takes us as we get to when Cade’s start would come up next.
“There’s reason to be optimistic this is something minor.”
Veteran right-hander Colin Rea admirably stepped up in Horton’s absence. Rea held the Guardians to one run and four hits in 3 1/3 innings.
“The concept of you need depth from your starting pitching because it’s the hardest thing to replace and you don’t replace people like Cade,” Counsell said. “But we feel like at least next time through, whoever starts, we have a strong option and go from there.”
Offensively, the Cubs didn’t do much against Guardians starter Joey Cantillo, armed with a wicked changeup, and the Cleveland bullpen. The Cubs managed just five hits, the third time in their seven games they tallied five hits or fewer, all of which were losses. Back-to-back one-out doubles from Pete Crow-Armstrong and Miguel Amaya produced the Cubs’ lone run in the third.
The seventh inning became the difference. Gabriel Arias and Chase DeLauter hit home runs off reliever Hunter Harvey to turn a tie game into a three-run Guardians lead.
Until the Cubs get word on the severity of Horton’s injury, the unknown of how long they might be without him has a potential big-picture impact on their season. While they have internal starter options to cover those innings, Horton’s 2025 performance and high ceiling mean this could be another devastating early-season blow to the Cubs rotation.
Forearm discomfort is a concerning initial diagnosis, and it’s reminiscent of last April when, two weeks into the season, they lost left-hander Justin Steele for the year following forearm discomfort that resulted in elbow surgery. Steele remains on track to return in late May or June
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; he is eligible to come off the 60-day injured list May 24.“A season requires people to step up if you want to accomplish your goals, and you’d like to avoid it for as long as you can during a season,” Counsell said. “And hopefully the things that happen are not season (ending) like in Steele’s case, but you need guys to step up and certainly Colin did that last year for us.”
The Cubs have options to fill in for Horton, though losing him for even a short time would be a blow. Rea certainly possesses plenty of experience plus right-hander Ben Brown or right-hander Javier Assad, currently at Triple-A Iowa, also could slot into the rotation, depending on Horton’s prognosis and how long he might be sidelined. The Cubs will need someone for Horton’s turn in the rotation Wednesday in Tampa.
Horton finished second in National League Rookie of the Year voting last year, going 11-4 with a 2.67 ERA in 23 outings (22 starts).