Cubs’ Craig Counsell provides promising injury update on young pitcher after fans were worried originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Chicago Cubs‘ pitching staff has an opportunity to be pretty good if they can throw the baseball at the level everybody knows they can. We can say that about a lot of teams around the league, but the Cubs really do have a lot of talent. At this point, it’s about staying healthy and putting it all together.
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One of the top arms in it is Cade Horton.
Horton has had some up-and-down moments throughout his MLB career, but for the most part, he has thrown the baseball at a ridiculously high level.
In the 2025 campaign, he posted a 2.67 ERA in 23 appearances. Starting in his first game of the 2026 campaign, he threw in 6.1 innings against the Washington Nationals and allowed just two earned runs and struck out four.
Despite how he looked, someone wanted him to go later in the game. When speaking about whether that’ll be a possibility in the future, it sounds like it will be.
“I expect it to be very normal as we get into the season,” Craig Counsell said, per SI. “I expect him to be fully stretched out, we’re gonna ease into it but it’s fully normal…he’s going deep into games.”
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I understand why Cubs fans want to hear that Horton will be stretched out later in the season, and were hopeful that he could be now, but the better decision is to ensure that he’s healthy moving forward and do what’s needed in the early stages of the campaign.
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