With Cubs’ Cade Horton out for the season, what’s the plan for the rotation?

Posted April 08, 2026 10:52 am

By Sahadev Sharma

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The loss of Cade Horton on Tuesday to elbow surgery for the season stings. There’s no denying that the Chicago Cubs can’t easily replace the production they expected to get from Horton. The talented righty was the 2025 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up and was looked at as someone who could build upon a strong debut season and emerge as the team’s ace.

But to reach their goals, the Cubs can’t dwell on what could have been. It must deal with reality.

“We have to look at this as someone else is going to get a chance,” manager Craig Counsell said before the team’s 9-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. “There’s going to be (an) opportunity for someone else to prove that they can be a part of a great baseball team.”

The first person to get that opportunity was Javier Assad. Technically, Assad was starting in place of Matthew Boyd, who is on the 15-day injured list with a left biceps strain. But Assad is part of the depth the Cubs will need to rely upon as they move forward.

Chicago’s lineup woke up with nine runs on 16 hits, five for extra bases. Seven players had multihit games, including Pete Crow-Armstrong and Alex Bregman with three apiece. But it was Assad who was the star of the night. Down two starters, the Cubs needed him to come through, and he did. For 5 2/3 innings, the righty shut down Tampa Bay, allowing no runs, one hit and two walks.

“Javy has done that many times,” Counsell said. “He’s stepped up when the team has needed it. And we certainly need it right now, and he delivered.”

As Assad walked off the mound in the sixth, the large contingent of Cubs fans who showed up to Tropicana Field gave him a rousing ovation, thankful for his performance.

“It’s really neat,” Assad said through an interpreter. “I was not expecting that. There’s a lot of fans out there. It’s a really good feeling that, even if we’re not at home, we’re able to have the fans here.”

The Cubs will need more outings like that. Not only from Assad, but also Colin Rea and the regulars on the staff. They’ll need Boyd to return healthy and ready to roll in 10 days. Justin Steele, who is on the 60-day IL after undergoing elbow surgery last summer, is eligible to return May 24.

“I would say that early June is kind of the optimal outcome here,” general manager Carter Hawkins said of Steele. “We want to make sure that he’s his best version of himself when he comes back. But he’s on pace. Towards the end of that 60-day stint is when we’ll think about how to get him back to the big leagues.”

Right now, Steele is in Arizona throwing in live batting practice sessions, and the Cubs will look to get him out in rehab starts at some point in May. Jordan Wicks is still working his way back to health and is a couple of weeks away from game action. Vince Velasquez is pitching at Triple-A Iowa and is a legitimate depth piece, but below numerous others.

Kyle Wright is a wild card in all of this, but “pretty far away still,” according to Counsell, as he continues to work his way back from injuries. Top prospect Jaxon Wiggins is healthy and also pitching at Triple A but still has significant developmental hurdles to cross. Perhaps he’s an option later this summer.

One idea the Cubs could consider would be to send Ben Brown back down to Triple A to get stretched out. But Brown may already be stretched out considering he’s tossed 8 2/3 innings over three appearances and thrown 49, 50 and 42 pitches, respectively, in those outings.

“Conversations like that are more relevant today than they were yesterday,” Counsell said. “But we’re not going to do anything different with Ben Brown right now. And Ben’s first three outings have prepared him pretty well if we would have to change course. But there’s no plan now to change course.”

The other option is to look externally for a pitcher. April trades are rare, but not unheard of. Desperate for pitching last April, the Milwaukee Brewers were aggressive and traded two prospects and a draft pick (the Cubs don’t have any tradable draft picks) to the Boston Red Sox for Quinn Priester, who was critical in their run to the NL Central crown.

“The most likely thing, in the short term, is within the organization,” Hawkins said. “In April, it’s difficult to make moves like that. But at the same time, we’ll obviously keep our lines in the water. You never know what opportunities might come up. But right now, I would focus on the guys internally.”

One prominent free agent still available is Lucas Giolito. The right-hander posted a 3.41 ERA in 145 innings last season. He’d be a solid addition, but there would be many factors the Cubs would have to consider if they were to try to add him.

Price matters. Not so much the availability of funds, but more to whether there would be proper value in spending that money.

Giolito has been throwing but would need time in the minors to build up and be ready. In that scenario, he would likely move ahead of Velazquez and Wright in the pecking order. Potentially even Wicks. But the Cubs would have to ask themselves whether he’d be better than Rea or Assad. They’d have to consider what happens to him when Steele returns. And, of lesser concern, would investing money in him keep them from making another move later in the season?

Ultimately, the likely scenario, at least until the trade deadline, is that the answer to their problems is coming from inside the organization. The Cubs can’t replicate Horton. A pitcher who had the upside of a front-of-the-rotation starter just isn’t easy to replace.

“We’re heartbroken for him,” Bregman said. “He’s a great teammate, great competitor and one of the best pitchers in baseball. It’s a tough blow. I don’t think anyone needs to try to be him. Be themselves, compete and execute their game plan and their pitches. Well find a way.”