Cade Horton will not pitch for Cubs in wild-card series after going on 15-day IL with fractured rib

Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune on Sep 27, 2025

Published in Baseball

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CHICAGO — The Cade Horton saga took a left turn Saturday when the Chicago Cubs announced their top starter was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right rib fracture.

Horton, who was expected to start one of the games in the wild-card series against the San Diego Padres, will be unable to pitch until at least Game 5 of the National League Division Series, if the Cubs advance to the next round.

“Obviously he’s incredibly disappointed,” team President Jed Hoyer said. “It’s obvious to all you guys how much he likes to compete. … The idea of not pitching in his first postseason in his rookie year, in a year he might have been one of the better pitchers in the second half, is incredibly disappointing.

“But he did everything he could do. We talked to his agent a lot, we talked to him a lot. He certainly wanted to give this a shot and thought he could. And now today we realized he couldn’t.”

Horton, 24, is a leading candidate for NL Rookie of the Year, with a 1.03 ERA in the second half, which was the best in the majors by a wide margin. Paul Skenes, the likely NL Cy Young Award winner, was second with a 1.89 ERA since the All-Star break.

The Cubs knew Horton had suffered an injury in his last start Tuesday against the New York Mets, when he was removed after 29 pitches, and sent him for an MRI on Wednesday. It was originally referred to as back tightness after some coughing.

Hoyer confirmed during Saturday’s game that the Cubs learned of the fracture Wednesday but didn’t disclose it to the media. The Cubs earlier this season declined to reveal a fractured finger on the right hand of Kyle Tucker from a June 1 slide. Tucker played through it and slumped badly in the second half, and the fracture was eventually disclosed in late August.

The Cubs hoped Horton could pitch through his fractured rib. Horton played catch Friday and Saturday morning and was scheduled to throw a bullpen Sunday.

“Because it was a bone, he really wanted to pitch,” Hoyer said. “He felt like he could do it, and he’s a tough kid. When it became clear he couldn’t throw without feeling it and having that discomfort. You can’t risk the compensation, and I also don’t know if you’d be able to be effective if he was unable to get extension and unable to throw without feeling it.”

Hoyer said the Cubs don’t know how Horton suffered the fracture.

“He was sick in Cincinnati, and with that (came) the coughing,” he said. “Whether that did it or not, we don’t know. There was no acute event that we know of, just that his ribs were sore, and got worse and he obviously came out of the game with the Mets.”

Asked about Horton’s routine Saturday morning, manager Craig Counsell described it as a “normal day” of throwing. But apparently it was not normal, and shortly before the start of the game against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cubs sent out an announcement of the injury.

The IL stint was retroactive to Thursday. Left-hander Jordan Wicks was recalled from Triple-A Iowa to take Horton’s roster spot, but the immediate concern was the rotation for the wild-card series.

Without Horton, the Cubs figure to go with some combination of Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga in the first two games, though Counsell would not reveal his plans and noted the rosters aren’t due until Tuesday morning.

If there is a Game 3, Jameson Taillon, who started Saturday against the Cardinals, likely would be available. Taillon entered the day with a 1.91 ERA over his previous six starts.

Counsell has not ruled out using an opener, and chastised the media Saturday for asking him how he’ll use his pitchers in the postseason.

“Look, roles are out the window, so get your head off of ‘roles,’ is what I would say,” Counsell said before news of the injury was revealed. “Those words are irrelevant. I’m using the word out-getter because that’s what happens this time of the year — ‘How do we get 27 outs?’ That’s all that matters. What you want to call them, call them whatever you want. We just want to get 27 outs.”

Hoyer said he was comfortable the Cubs have pitching depth to get through it.

“Next guy up,” he said.

Imanaga has not performed well of late and has been giving up even more home runs than usual — 20 over 76 2/3 innings in the second half, with a 4.70 ERA. Both Counsell and team President Jed Hoyer have voiced concern over Imanaga’s recent outings.

Was Imanaga concerned about all the home runs he has allowed?

“The hitters here, if you miss a pitch, they’re not going to miss, and they’re not going to take it,” he told the Tribune on Saturday. “They’re going to hit it. If we were winning games it wouldn’t be a problem, but the fact the games I’ve started, we lost them, it’s definitely something I’ve thought about and I’m working on.”

The Cubs entered Saturday’s game with a magic number of one for clinching home field for the wild-card series.

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