Cubs right-hander Cade Horton will undergo elbow surgery and miss the rest of the 2026 season, a harsh turn for one of the game’s most closely watched young pitchers. Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune reported that Horton has a torn ulnar collateral ligament, though it will not be known until the procedure begins whether he needs full Tommy John surgery or another option.
Horton, already on the 15-day injured list, was removed from his start Friday after throwing a pitch that was about two miles per hour below his average. The Cubs first announced the issue as forearm discomfort and quickly placed him on the injured list, but the diagnosis now points to a far more serious elbow injury.
The timing cuts especially deep because Horton entered the 2025 season as one of the top pitching prospects in the league and handled himself like one. He did not get called up until mid-May last year, then threw 118 innings for the Cubs with a 2.67 earned run average and finished second in National League Rookie of the Year voting. The performance moved him from prospect to core piece in little more than a summer.
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That rise also came with an unusual layer of roster and service-time implications. Because of the Prospect Promotion Incentive, Horton received a full year of service time retroactively, and he will continue to collect service time while on the injured list this year. That means he will reach the two-year mark even while he is sidelined, and he will turn 25 years old in August.
The exact recovery path still depends on what surgeons find once they get inside the elbow. A full Tommy John procedure typically carries a timeline of 14 months or more, while an internal brace alternative can shorten the wait somewhat, but either route removes Horton from the Cubs’ plans for the rest of this season and leaves them trying to replace a pitcher who had become one of their most reliable arms in a matter of months.
