As things stand, and there’s little reason to think they’d change much, the Cubs will open the 2025 MLB postseason against the San Diego Padres as the top wild-card team in the National League, meaning they’ll start at home. And we can say “will” now because the Cubs will, indeed, be in the playoffs this year, as they clinched their spot with an 8-4 win over the Pirates in Pittsburgh on Wednesday afternoon.
The win set off a gigantic sigh of relief in the Cubs locker room when it was over, and there were plenty of bloodshot eyes both from sheer emotion and from the sting of flying champagne. The Cubs have not been to the playoffs since 2020, and no matter how you feel about the decisions of Craig Counsell or how many angry posts you made about Jed Hoyer after the trade deadline, they got the Cubs over the line and into the postseason.
And one of the keys to it all might have been the team’s rookie first-round pick from three years ago, the guy who entered the season as the No. 2 prospect in the system: right-hander Cade Horton.
Cade Horton: ERA Is 0.93 in Second Half
Horton got the win on Tuesday, his fourth straight win, running his record to 11-4. He allowed one earned run in 5.0 innings in that game, dropping his ERA to 2.66, an amazing feat considering he had some bouts of inconsistency early on. Horton was brought up in May and had an ERA of 4.45 in after his final start before the All-Star break.
Since then, he has been lights out. Horton, leaning on his unhittable four-seamer, is 8-1 in the second half of the season, with a 0.93 ERA and a 0.79 WHIP. He has allowed batters just a .153 average since the break.
Which puts into an interesting context something Horton said after the clincher, when asked what he is looking forward to: “Just playing at Wrigley. Like we said, our goal is to play at Wrigley in the first game, so be able to do that–yeah, just keep winning baseball games.”
Cubs Protective of Rookie Arm
So … Cade Horton, Wrigley Field, Game 1 of the wild-card round?
It could be argued that, with the many injuries in the rotation, especially to putative ace Justin Steele, the Cubs would not be celebrating a postseason clincher without Horton’s second-half performance. Jameson Taillon was injured during the season and Javier Assad missed the start of the year, so without Horton’s surprising contribution, the rotation would have been in very big trouble.
Horton, though, is just a couple of weeks removed from his 24th birthday and the Cubs are eager to protect his arm beyond the 2025. You don’t need to be a very old Cubs fan to remember the likes of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior and appreciate Chicago’s desire to put Horton’s health first.
Cubs Should Start Cade Horton in Game 1
The Cubs, remember, pulled Horton after 5.0 innings of a no-hitter on September 2, and during this second-half run, he has been allowed to throw more than 80 pitches only four times in 11 starts. He has thrown 75 or fewer pitches seven times. The priority is wear-and-tear.
But it’s the playoffs and as good as Shota Imanaga has been–and at age 31, he has experience behind him–no Cubs pitcher has been as dominant as Horton. Even if he is topped out at five or six innings, they’ll probably be five or six electric innings.
“He’s one of the most aggressive pitchers I’ve ever seen pitch, and it’s a lot of fun watching,” Cubs reliever Brad Keller said. “He’s got unbelievable stuff. He’s the ultimate, ‘Here it is, hit it,’ kind of pitcher, you know? And it’s really fun to watch.”
The Cubs have a bit more than two weeks to sort it out. It’s hard to imagine, though, that the logic of starting Horton in the opener is going to change much.