Chicago Cubs pitcher Jameson Taillon has been in Cade Horton’s shoes.
The veteran was once a first-round pick who dazzled in his rookie campaign with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Taillon went back to the drawing board after that 2016 season, though.
“I think honestly one of the bigger mistakes that I made was thinking that I had to make an adjustment,” Taillon told the Tribune before Saturday’s 10-2 win over the Washington Nationals at Wrigley Field. “I went into the offseason, and I had a good rookie year, and I just felt the need to work on a third pitch more and all that.”
The tinkering didn’t help. He followed up his 3.38 ERA as a rookie with a 4.44 ERA in his sophomore season. Playing to his strengths is a lesson Taillon hopes Horton, the Cubs first-round pick in 2022, learns from him. If one game is any indication, the 24-year-old Horton is on his way to avoiding the same pitfalls that beset Taillon in Year 2.
Horton retired the first nine Nationals hitters he faced on 28 pitches before allowing a leadoff home run to James Wood in the fourth. The right-hander was able to resettle after the solo blast, permitting two earned runs on four hits with a walk and four strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings, throwing 75 pitches.
He succeeded by pitching much like he did last season — he attacked hitters and induced early and weak contact. Only one of the 22 batters Horton faced saw more than seven pitches — Brady House drew an 11-pitch walk to lead off the fifth inning.
“It was really an outing that we saw a bunch last year where he was just so good with being in the strike zone, getting early outs in counts in the strike zone (and) it leads to very low pitch counts,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said after the win, erasing some of the sting of Thursday’s 10-4 loss in the season-opener.
The swirling winds at Wrigley Field gave the Nationals fits in the second inning and provided a spark to a Cubs lineup that flashed their run-scoring potential on Saturday afternoon.
Catcher Miguel Amaya hit a bloop single that evaded the glove of first baseman Luis García Jr. in shallow right field, and Michael Busch’s pop fly a batter later crossed up left fielder Daylen Lile and shortstop Nasim Nuñez, allowing another pair of runs to score in a four-run frame.
“That sun was really tough in left field early in the game,” Cubs left fielder Ian Happ said. “I think that’s a Wrigley game, and our experience kind of showed.”
Cubs left fielder Ian Happ, right, high-fives Matt Shaw, center, and Michael Busch after hitting a three-run home run during the sixth inning against the Nationals on Saturday, March 28, 2026, at Wrigley Field. (Matt Marton/AP)
Amaya’s fourth-inning solo shot was the first home run of the season for the Cubs, and Happ hit a three-run blast in a four-run sixth.
That was plenty of run support for Horton, who picked up where he left off in 2025. He finished second in National League Rookie of the Year voting last season, posting a 2.67 ERA in 23 games (22 starts). He was pitching so well toward the end of the year that the Cubs had lined him up to start their playoff opener, but a right rib fracture kept him out of the postseason.
While Horton and the Cubs hope he can build off that first-year success, Counsell has been around long enough to know it might not always be smooth sailing in 2026.
“I could probably name one start, maybe two starts where Cade probably struggled (last year),” Counsell said before the game. “(That) number’s going to be higher this year. He may have consecutive starts where that happens. It’s just adjusting from that and going from that.”
The majors are inundated with data and information, and teams can quickly identify and exploit weaknesses. It happened to Horton in 2025, when he allowed seven earned runs in four innings against the Houston Astros on June 27. Horton used that performance as a springboard, tossing seven scoreless innings six days later and posting a 1.36 ERA across his final 14 games.
“I think Cade handles that part really well,” Counsell said. “He kind of turns it off and takes an objective look at it. He’s going to go through that stuff, and you want to help go through that stuff.”
Horton used the winter to build up his strength, ensuring he could pitch throughout the course of a 162-game season, and he did so by leaning on his veteran teammates.
The fractured rib injury in 2025 was the second straight season cut short for Horton due to injury after a subscapularis strain ended his 2024 season. He pitched in only 14 games for Oklahoma University in 2022 before the Cubs selected him with the No. 7 pick in that summer’s draft, so ensuring he’s healthy is as crucial as any tinkering he may do on the mound.
“I’ve picked (Taillon) and (Matthew Boyd’s) brain a lot, honestly more about recovery stuff and things like that,” Horton said after the game. “Just finding a way to be on the field. Availability is the best ability and just picking their brains on how they do it and how they attack the day-to-day process.”
Saturday was a good first step for Horton, especially since the Cubs want him to play a prominent role for a team with aspirations of playing deep into October.
“He’s going to be a huge part of it,” Happ said. “He’s going to take the ball every fifth day, and we need him. We need him to be the version of himself. It’s been impressive to watch. He’s going to continue getting better. That’s the fun part of having a guy like him on the staff.”
Andy Martinez is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.