{"id":661423,"date":"2026-04-03T20:13:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661423\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T20:13:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T20:13:29","slug":"anti-lefty-batting-order-horton-starting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/661423\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Lefty Batting Order, Horton Starting –"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cubs enter their first road trip of the season at .500 after splitting with the Nationals and Angels, so they will need to play better baseball if they want to return home with a winning record. That starts with a weekend set against the Guardians, then three in Tampa to give them nine straight interleague games. Kinda weird, especially considering that only one is either outdoors or in a warmer climate.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a little funny that the Cubs, who are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their World Series win, went from the Angels to the Guardians. As you certainly recall, the 2016 season opened in Anaheim and finished in Cleveland. Kind of a lot\u2019s changed since then, but one thing that remains similar from a decade ago is the weight of expectation being placed on the Cubs. While no one is trying to coronate this group early, it\u2019s been made quite clear that merely making the playoffs as a Wild Card will not be satisfactory.<\/p>\n

One big reason the Cubs didn\u2019t make more noise in October last year was the absence of Cade Horton, who cracked a rib during his final regular-season start. He showed just how good he can be during a dominant run in the second half, and he carried that over into his first start last week. While you\u2019d like to see Horton put more batters away, it\u2019s hard to argue with his results.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t need as many strikeouts against the Nats because he kept the ball on the ground, but we\u2019ll probably see that balance out as the starts pile up. Being able to pitch with the efficiency of a contact guy while also improving his whiff rate will make Horton an ace. Even if he does put up an elite-level performance this afternoon, the bats might want to go ahead and provide some cushion.<\/p>\n

Craig Counsell<\/a> is going with his southpaw lineup, bumping Nico Hoerner<\/a> into the leadoff role. Alex Bregman<\/a> is at third, Ian Happ is in left, and Carson Kelly<\/a> is the catcher and cleanup hitter. Michael Busch<\/a> gets a chance to prove he should be part of a platoon, Dansby Swanson<\/a> is at short, Matt Shaw<\/a> is in right, Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> drops to eighth, and Miguel Amaya<\/a> is the DH.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re up against lefty Joey Cantillo, a 26-year-old looking for his first full MLB season as a starter. He pitched in 34 games last year with only 13 starts, but that was based more on what the team needed at the time. A 16th-round pick by the Padres out of Kailua High School in 2017, Cantillo was only 17 years old when he made his professional debut. He was traded to the Guardians in 2020 in the deal that included Mike Clevenger, Austin Hedges, and Josh Naylor, among others.<\/p>\n

Cantillo spent parts of eight seasons in the minors before making his debut in July of 2024. He then bounced between Triple-A and MLB last year, pitching well enough to earn himself a spot in the rotation this season. He has posted huge strikeout numbers in the minors and has 157 in just under 138 MLB innings, which is incredibly impressive for a guy who only throws 92 mph.<\/p>\n

The key is a high-ride changeup that closely matches the movement profile of his fastball despite being 14 ticks slower. Cantillo throws it mainly to right-handed batters, often locating it in the upper arm-side corner of the zone. Its usage was way down in his first start of the season, replaced mainly by his slider, but that was a matter of the matchup. He\u2019s also got a curve that he\u2019ll mix in about 20% of the time.<\/p>\n

One major factor in Cantillo\u2019s success is the 99th-percentile extension that sees him release the ball 7.5 feet from the rubber. That increases his perceived velocity, which is very important for getting that changeup to play so well off the fastball. Hitters have just a little less time to discern between pitches, giving him a slight edge. He does tend to spray the ball around, though, and he tends to miss low with greater frequency than he\u2019d like.<\/p>\n

Cantillo has the look of a typical crafty lefty who will be able to hang around for a long time because he knows how to pitch and because he puts up big reverse splits. Righties have a career .208\/.280\/.354 slash against him because of that changeup, but lefties are much higher across the board. Even if he never figures out those like-handed hitters, the offspeed will carry him.<\/p>\n

The Cubs will need to figure him out early lest they want to fall back into a losing record, so I\u2019d advise patience. Cantillo will make plenty of mistakes, so getting runners on shouldn\u2019t be a problem. It\u2019s all about taking advantage of what they\u2019re given.<\/p>\n

First pitch is at 3:10pm CT on Marquee and 104.3 The Score.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs enter their first road trip of the season at .500 after splitting with the Nationals and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,9722,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-661423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicagocubs","12":"tag-cubs","13":"tag-cubs-lineup","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116342608495275438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}