Cade Horton Seeking Second Opinion Following ‘Not Clean’ MRI
You generally don’t seek a second opinion if you hear what you want the first time, and pitchers most certainly don’t fly to Arlington to see renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Meister if they feel good about their initial prognosis. So hearing that Cade Horton is doing exactly that following MRI results that ESPN’s Jesse Rogers told Kap and JHood were “not clean and not good” should set off alarm bells.
Both Horton and Craig Counsell sounded optimistic when talking about the righty’s outlook after he was pulled from his most recent start against the Guardians. Horton walked Kyle Manzardo on five pitches to lead off the 2nd inning, at which point he signaled to trainer Nick Frangella. He appeared to have tears in his eyes while heading to the clubhouse, but he didn’t seem upset when talking with reporters.
“I had some tightness in my wrist,” Horton said. “And then, as the game went on, started to move into my forearm. And so I just wanted to err on the cautious side and really not try to hurt anything else.”
As much as I’d like to believe that it was just a matter of mild cramping or something of that nature, the eternal pessimist in me screams otherwise. The news about Horton visiting Dr. Meister does nothing to quiet those intrusive thoughts, especially after GM Carter Hawkins’ conversation with 104.3 The Score’s Rahimi & Harris (and Grote) on Monday.
“You always end up attributing anything that doesn’t go well to a lot of different variables as you kind of look backwards, and this situation is no different,” Hawkins said. “And we’ll try to figure out if there’s anything that kind of led to this moment for him that we can try to improve upon in the future. But, long story short, we’re working our tails off to try to prevent these types of things for all of our guys.
Whenever a pitcher like Cade Horton is dealing with an arm injury, there’s natural concern involving the potential of Tommy John surgery.@grotesports asked Cubs GM Carter Hawkins about the level of concern for Horton. @Rahimi_Harris pic.twitter.com/SzUzO6gCWv
— 104.3 The Score (@thescorechicago) April 6, 2026
“They’re also unfortunately part of the game that we have to prepare for, so we’ll look forward with the rest of the crew here and, at the same time, try to make the best decisions for Cade and then get him back out as soon as we can.”
Maybe it’s just the Debbie Downer in me talking, but Hawkins’ comments struck me as laden with implicit concern for something much worse than a minimum IL stint. I mean, you don’t talk about forensic analysis of a truly minor issue. He’s talking about looking into what led up to Horton’s injury and how they can ward off similar issues with other pitchers, which speaks to something significant and chronic rather than a superficial acute issue.
I have been wrong once or twice before, and I’m sure hoping this is another mark against me, but I’m getting very bad vibes from this situation.
