NEW YORK – Top Cubs pitching prospect Cade Horton is getting his first taste of the major leagues this weekend.
“It’s been crazy,” Horton said Friday of his journey over the past year to end up standing in front of his own locker in the Citi Field visitors clubhouse. “But it’s a testament to all the hard work I put in this offseason, and the strides I’ve made just maturing and really knowing it’s my time.”
He’s expected to be active Saturday against the Mets, manager Craig Counsell said Friday. The Cubs had a hole to fill in the rotation after Shota Imanaga went on the 15-day IL Monday with a strained left hamstring.
Imanaga is expected to be out for more than two weeks. In the meantime, the Cubs are without their top two starters. Left-hander Justin Steele underwent season-ending elbow surgery in mid-April.
Horton, selected No. 7 overall in the 2022 MLB Draft, was expected to debut last year. But a subscapularis strain in his right shoulder and a setback in his injury rehab ended his season in late May, just five starts after his promotion to Triple-A.
During spring training, he was clear about his goals for the season: “I’m here to prove who I am and make my debut this year,” he said in late February after throwing to hitters for the first time since the injury.
Horton got the call-up after posting a 1.24 ERA in six starts for Iowa this season. In each of his last two starts — both against the Buffalo Bisons, the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate — he allowed one run in six innings.
“He’s been consistently good down there,” Cubs team president Jed Hoyer said this week. “He’s built off a good spring training, but his last couple of starts were better than the first couple of starts down there. He’s been going six innings and throwing well, so he’s done his part in Triple-A.”
The Cubs made sure not to rush Horton’s build-up in spring training, taking his injury into account. Early on, he focused on cleaning up his mechanics, which had slipped going into last season.
“And then we really challenged him to execute his spin in the strike zone,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “He’s a guy that can live with elite stuff and can get chase and get swing-and-miss, even when it’s out. But when he throws his curveball and his slider in the zone for strikes early in the count, it’s a different animal. And that’s the type of thing he’s going to have to do here to be successful. In the minor leagues, you can throw nasty sliders right out of the gate and guys might chase them. There’s good hitters in this league, and they’ll have a plan.”
The Cubs have been pleased with Horton’s development in this area. His comfort throwing breaking balls in the strike zone has helped him to become less predictable in his pitch sequencing.
Hottovy used the example of throwing a first-pitch fastball for a ball. Whereas before, Horton might have gone back to the fastball to even the count, now he’s confident enough landing a slider for a strike that he could go to it for the second pitch of the at-bat.
“It’s been really cool to see him take that and take ownership of it,” Hottovy said.
Horton said he was sitting in his hotel room in Toledo, Ohio, when Iowa pitching coach Tony Cougoule told him that manager Marty Pevey wanted to see him because he’d been named Triple-A pitcher of the month.
“I’m thinking, ‘I think that was given out like a week ago. I didn’t win it,’ ” Horton said. “So, red flag there.”
Pevey didn’t keep up the pretense for long. Horton was going to New York to face the Mets with the big-league team.
“It was a super-cool moment,” Horton said.