Cade Horton’s masterful rookie season didn’t end the way the Chicago Cubs right-hander envisioned.

A fluky right rib fracture sustained from an illness during the final week of the regular season prevented Horton from pitching in the postseason. The 24-year-old would have been added to the roster for the National League Championship Series if the Cubs had bested the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Division Series.

Instead, Horton’s reflections after the Cubs’ Game 5 NLDS loss had him already looking ahead to how he can make an impact for the Cubs in 2026.

Horton’s 2025 performance, which featured a 2.67 ERA and 144 ERA+ in 118 innings, earned him a second-place finish Monday night in voting for the NL Rookie of the Year award. Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin won the award with 183 points, 44 ahead of Horton, in voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Baldwin received 21 of the 30 first-place votes, with Horton getting the other nine. Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw received one third-place and one fifth-place vote.

Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz was named American League Rookie of the Year.

The Cubs might not have made the playoffs without Horton stepping up amid injuries in the rotation. Left-hander Justin Steele was lost for the season in April because of elbow surgery, left-hander Shota Imanaga missed seven weeks with a left hamstring strain and right-hander Jameson Taillon missed six weeks because of a left calf strain.

Horton was dominant in the second half. The hard-throwing righty posted a 1.03 ERA in his last 12 starts, spanning 61 1/3 innings, while surrendering one run or fewer in 11 of those games. Since 1913, when earned runs became an official statistic, Horton’s second-half ERA was the second-lowest in Cubs history behind Jake Arrieta’s 0.75 ERA in 2015.

“I feel like I kind of settled in in the second half and came into my own,” Horton said after the Cubs were eliminated. “So just going into the offseason, continuing to work and find ways to get better, and going into spring training we have something to prove.

“I can do what I did in the second half, go out there and win games for my team. And that’s really my main focus is just going out there and helping the Cubs win.”

As part of finishing second in Rookie of the Year voting, Horton receives a $500,000 bonus from MLB’s pre-arbitration pool and gains a full year of service time even though he wasn’t called up until May 10.