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- Hopes Remain High for Cade Horton, Even As Patience is Required
Hopes Remain High for Cade Horton, Even As Patience is Required
Cade Horton will likely open the season in Iowa, but there's still high hopes for the Cubs pitching prospect.
Because of the injuries to Javier Assad and Brandon Birdsell, because of the Dylan Cease rumors, because of the lack of an impact starting pitcher signing/trade after Matthew Boyd, and because of the natural ramp-up to the season, I have had the Cubs’ starting pitching group on the mind a whole lot lately. That means, in turn, I have had a number of opportunities to say things like “the Cubs’ front four of Justin Steele, Shōta Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, and Matthew Boyd, with Javier Assad, Ben Brown, Colin Rea, and Jordan Wicks behind them, and then guys like Brandon Birdsell, Connor Noland, Caleb Kilian, and Cade Horton behind them.”
Having Horton in that last group has always been much less of a product of his talent – he’s the top pitching prospect in the system for a reason – and more just about how far down the list he is right now, realistically, in guys who could actually break camp with the big league team if there were a need, or who might appear as a fill-in starter in the first few months of the season if needed.
