Cade Horton narrowly lost to the Braves’ Drake Baldwin in the 2025 Rookie of the Year race. Justin Berl / Getty Images

Despite not winning the National League Rookie of the Year award, Cade Horton has earned a full year of service time and a $500,000 bonus, both benefits of a second-place finish. The Cubs’ right-handed starting pitcher narrowly lost to Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin.

He was buoyed by a brilliant second-half during which Horton emerged as one of the best starters in baseball. Over his 2025 campaign, he posted a 2.67 ERA over 118 innings in 23 appearances (22 starts), becoming a key cog for a Cubs team that made the postseason for the first time since 2020. The talented 24-year-old made his debut on May 10 and seemed to get better with each outing.

After entering the 2024 season as one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, Horton suffered a velocity drop and then a significant shoulder injury that limited him to just 34 1/3 innings across two levels. That led to questions about what Horton could be entering the season, but officials with the Cubs were cautiously optimistic that they had worked with Horton to find the right offseason program that would help him overcome his issues from the previous season and have a successful 2025.

While the Cubs always believed he’d be a factor this past summer, Horton’s arrival was hastened after Justin Steele went down with an elbow injury and Shota Imanaga hit the injured list with a hamstring strain. Horton almost immediately delivered on the hype. A second half during which he posted a 1.03 ERA, 0.78 WHIP and .447 OPS against helped put him on the national radar and propelled him to a top-two finish.

Horton’s season was cut short after he exited his final start of the season with what was eventually revealed to be a broken rib. The rookie missed the Cubs’ playoff run but had the club advanced to the NLCS, he would have been available. His absence was felt as Imanaga struggled against the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS and the team’s starting pitching overall proved to be at least one pitcher short.

Horton was recruited as a two-sport athlete at Oklahoma, but never got a chance to play quarterback at the university and missed his freshman baseball season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in February 2021. Horton initially wasn’t seen as a first-round pick as a draft-eligible sophomore in the 2022 draft as his elevated ERA made some question his ability. But a dominant run in the College World Series and the development of his slider that he paired with a fastball that consistently touched the upper-90s catapulted him up draft boards.

Still hardly seen as a slam-dunk selection, the Cubs were confident in their evaluation and selected him seventh overall in 2022. Early on, it appears that their boldness has been rewarded. Many see Horton as only just scratching the surface. The combination of stuff, results and a work ethic and mound presence that’s roundly lauded has some within the organization believing that this is just the beginning of the award nominations for Horton.

Nov 11, 2025

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Sahadev Sharma is a staff writer for The Athletic and covers the Chicago Cubs. Previously, Sahadev was a national baseball writer for Baseball Prospectus and ESPN Chicago. Follow Sahadev on Twitter @sahadevsharma