The Chicago Cubs are planning to unleash Cade Horton, a young pitcher whose athleticism, adaptability and attitude signify a potential ace at the front of a championship-caliber rotation.
Reaching that next level, however, will likely happen incrementally rather than in one fell swoop. A deliberate approach helped Horton finish second in last season’s National League Rookie of the Year voting, earning him a full year of major-league service time that moved up his timetable to become a free agent.
In an effort to protect their investments, while also factoring in the possibility of a long playoff run, the Cubs constantly track their pitchers and measure their production. Horton doesn’t have the temperament or stature to bark at his manager on the mound or complain through postgame media sessions, but the right-hander is a bit of a throwback as a competitor who wants the ball and expects to dominate.
“My job is to go out there and get outs,” Horton said, “and when they take the ball from me, they take the ball from me. Yeah, hopefully, I get more innings this year and really put more on my workload. That’s something I want.”
Horton’s intrinsic qualities would have meshed well with some of the big personalities on the 2016 World Series team, a group back on the radar for its 10-year reunion tour. This weekend’s series in Cleveland will also bring back memories of the epic Game 7 that ended a title drought that lasted more than a century.
Given how much the game has evolved since that series — a push for max-effort stuff, shifts in bullpen usage, rule changes and advances in technology — the Cubs may never again assemble a rotation with that much durability and resilience.
In 2016, a five-man group accounted for 152 starts across the 162-game season, with each pitcher making between 29 and 32 starts. Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks each pitched into November and crossed the 200-inning threshold. In 17 playoff games, the Cubs did not utilize a single homegrown pitcher.
Horton, once a football recruit and two-way baseball player, emerged as the No. 7 pick in the 2022 MLB draft after recovering from Tommy John surgery and helping lead Oklahoma to the College World Series.
Horton is 24 years old and under club control through 2030, linking his future to the franchise’s long-term outlook. For now, Cubs manager Craig Counsell is focused on setting the foundation for Horton’s 2026 season, which continues with Friday’s start at Progressive Field for the Guardians’ home opener.
“If you look at history,” Counsell said, “the first three weeks of the season for pitchers are pretty delicate.”
The Cubs did not put a hard cap on Horton’s innings last year, but there were guidelines in place to manage a pitcher who had thrown only 34 1/3 innings in 2024 and already had an extensive medical history.
Using information and observations from different departments within baseball operations, the Cubs followed a plan that increased his output to 118 innings. Horton finished 11-4 with a 2.67 ERA, but he did not throw 100 pitches in a single outing last year, and he completed the seventh inning only once.
“We’re in a much better place, but we will definitely be cognizant of his workload,” Counsell said. “Last year, we did it through pitch counts. We kept the pitch counts lower, basically, in all of his starts. Frankly, it was pretty effective, so it’s something that we will kind of monitor as we go and keep an eye on it.
“But I don’t know if I have any hard rules going in. I’d say early in the season, you’d probably expect him to be a little unhappy when he’s pulled out of the game.”
Horton should earn more latitude in time, given his capacity for processing information and finding in-game solutions. The Cubs saw that after last year’s All-Star break, when he performed at the level of a Cy Young Award contender, going 8-1 with a 1.03 ERA for a team that played into October.
“I don’t know what the next version is going to look like exactly, because one of the things he does exceptionally well is make changes,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. “Whether it’s adding a new pitch, whether it’s refining an existing pitch, he’s a really good athlete, and he has a really good ability to develop and make changes.
“As the league adjusts to him, he’ll make adjustments. That was what was so special about the second half — it didn’t look anything like the college version of him. It was a completely different version. He was throwing two-seamers. The cutting fastball was really effective. The changeup’s gotten so much better. His ability to evolve is really special.”
For all that hard work and careful management, Horton still wasn’t available for the biggest games last year. A fractured right rib sidelined him for the first two rounds of the playoffs, though he made enough progress to be ready for the NL Championship Series, had the Cubs eliminated the Milwaukee Brewers and advanced to face the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I watched the rest of the playoffs, just feeling like we should be there,” Horton said. “It just leaves a taste in your mouth that keeps you going and keeps you hungry.”
