Nico Hoerner Hasn’t Resumed Baseball Activities, Cade Horton ‘Ready to Go’
It may not feel like it, but we’re only a month away from the Cubs’ first spring training game. A good number of players have already been working out at the team’s Sloan Park facilities in preparation for spring training and a very early start to the season as the Cubs will face the juggernaut Dodgers in Tokyo on March 18. Nico Hoerner is not among those who’ve resumed baseball activities because he’s still rehabbing from flexor tendon surgery in October.
The forearm issue that precipitated the procedure dogged him throughout much of the ’24 season, making his strong performance all the more impressive. Whether he can maintain his consistent production this year remains an open question, however, as a timeline for his return has not been established. At least not publicly. Hoerner has not yet begun throwing or hitting, so initial estimates that he won’t be ready by Opening Day appear to be accurate.
How the Cubs address his absence is an open question, whether it’s with James Triantos or an external addition. Jed Hoyer said during Cubs Convention that they plan to address third base internally, a tacit admission that Matt Shaw is going to be given every opportunity to win the role. Giving Triantos a shot would mean adding him to the 40-man roster, so it’s more likely we’ll see some combination of Vidal Bruján, Ben Cowles, and Luis Vázquez.
That should end up just being a temporary issue that impacts the first month or so of the season, but another injury update may affect the second half. Cade Horton quickly shot to the top of the Cubs’ prospect list after the team made the surprising choice to select him seventh overall in 2022. He missed a lot of time at Oklahoma due to elbow reconstruction, hence the surprise, and flashed loads of promise the following summer.
Horton looked like a lock to make his MLB debut last season before a subscapularis strain shut him down after only 34.1 innings. There have been some concerns about the nature of the injury and the extreme caution with which the Cubs handled it, but Horton says he’s “feeling good and ready to go.” Shutting him down and keeping him on the shelf was really just a way to protect him from himself because he’s a gamer who might have otherwise tried to push through the injury.
“I’m always a guy that’s wanting to go until I break,” Horton told reporters at CubsCon. “So, [it was important] having those people around me to be like, ‘No, let’s do the smart thing. You have a whole career ahead of you.’ That’s what I really learned is you should say something and get right.”
Provided he’s able to maintain his health, Horton will likely factor in the Cubs’ attempt to win 90+ games and the division. That figures to be as a reliever in the early going, a strategy the team has utilized with other young pitchers whose professional innings were limited by injury. Justin Steele feels like a particularly good comp, though Horton’s upside is even higher.
“I’m just wanting to find a seat on the plane and help my team win,” Horton said. “That’s my job at the end of the day — to go out there and get outs. Whether that be in the bullpen, whether that be starting, it really doesn’t matter to me. I just want to help the Chicago Cubs win. That’s my goal.”
Sounds like a solid plan.