Cade Horton is Headed to IL, But There’s Cautious Optimism ...Middle East

The extent to which any news tonight can be considered good news is pretty low. No matter which way you slice it, losing your best young pitcher — in this case, Cade Horton — to a forearm injury, however minor, is not a good thing.

Moreover, this organization has a checkered past with initial optimism on injuries often getting followed by the brutal hammer of reality. And on top of everything else, players almost always tend to be less concerned than they probably should be immediately after an injury. It’s just in their nature.

HOWEVER, on a relative scale, I can at least say that the things coming out of the Cubs organization, players, coaches, and associated media tonight are better than what I had been bracing for. There are no reports of an elbow pop or an immediate sharp (or unrelenting) pain. And although Cade Horton is, in fact, headed to the Injured List, there does seem to be a lot of optimism that the worst may have been avoided.

Let’s get into it.

Cade Horton Injury Update

First, the news: Cade Horton will head back to Chicago this weekend to get some imaging done, and this “will be an IL stint.” But according Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic, “early talk has some optimism….Horton said it started in his wrist, then got tight in forearm, so he wanted to be proactive and not push it.”

More from Counsell, here:

Craig Counsell said Cade Horton felt discomfort in his wrist that moved to his forearm, and he will travel to Chicago to get it checked out.An upcoming roster move is likely. t.co/oVdej2xNVf pic.twitter.com/oZ9lGdSsWe

His comments if you couldn’t watch: “Kinda had some discomfort in his wrist, then just like tightness or whatever, then it kinda got to his forearm, and at that point he just decided he needed to stop. There was discomfort there. So, that’s really all from a diagnosis we have right now. We will send him back to Chicago to get him checked out….We’d like to make a roster move here and we’ll see where that takes us.”

And here’s Cade Horton explaining it himself:

"I just wanted to err on the cautious side and try not to hurt anything else … I wanted to make a mature decision and end it there."Cade Horton is still optimistic after exiting today's game early. pic.twitter.com/X0I3igBNSS

Same thing: “I had some tightness in my wrist. And then, you know, as the game went on, it started to move into my forearm. And so, I just wanted to err on the cautious side and really not try to hurt anything else….I just wanted to be smart about it. I’ve been in this spot before, and I’ve taken the other route where kept going and it ends up being worse. And so, I just tried to make a mature decision and end it there.”

First of all, THANK YOU, Cade, on behalf of all Cubs fans, for not trying to push it right now. Losing you sucks, but it’s April 3. If you saved yourself months by costing yourself a few weeks, that’s a gigantic win. I don’t think we know for sure we can be that optimistic yet, but like he said, pushing through things very often makes it worse. Maybe it’s worth it in October, but it isn’t right now.

And that’s pretty much it.

The Cubs will make a roster move at some point, but until we know how long Cade Horton will be out (and it sounds like the imaging won’t come until Monday), trying to guess what the Cubs do next isn’t very easy.

That said, the most likely/obvious path is to just slide Colin Rea into the rotation, the same way they did when Justin Steele hit the IL last April. But he’s far from the only choice. Ben Brown is still stretched out and has worked on expanding his repertoire to be more successful in longer spurts than he has been in the past. Brown has had a tough time getting over the hump, but the upside there is still more significant than the other realistic options.

Speaking of realistic options, Javier Assad has done it in the big leagues before, though he did just have a rough first outing at Iowa last night (4.0 IP, 8 R, 7 ER, 11 H, 3 BB, 2 K, 2 HR). Even still, he’s not a bad bet to replace Cade Horton.

Meanwhile, top pitching prospect Jaxon Wiggins doesn’t feel like a particularly realistic path for the Cubs right now, though you can’t close that door entirely, I guess. Jordan Wicks is still on the IL. And Justin Steele isn’t returning until the end of May, at the earliest.

Bottom line here, we just don’t know what comes next. The Cubs could bring up a reliever, moving one of the stretched-out guys into the rotation. They could bring up an I-Cubs starter to keep the bullpen as is. They can grab someone from outside the organization, or they can do a little bit of everything, but still punt their “long-term” decision until Horton’s next turn in the rotation comes up … or until they actually know how long he’ll be out. Because that changes the calculus, too.

We’re going to have a more detailed breakdown on the Cubs’ options in Horton’s absence early tomorrow morning. So keep an eye out for that.

Bottom line here for tonight: This is bad, but it could have been worse. We’re nowhere near out of the woods (and won’t be until the imaging is done on Monday), but at least it wasn’t an immediately obvious disaster. And finally, yes, as we all hoped, Cade Horton did do the mature thing, taking himself out of the game as soon as he felt something creep up.

Caution, optimism, etc. Let’s just hope, this time, it actually stays good news when we finally learn more.

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