Chicago Cubs Aiming for Star Prospect to Have Spot in Their 2025 Rotation

With the Chicago Cubs eyeing the future, it seems like they want one of their star prospects to be part of their rotation next season.

South Bend Cubs Cade Horton (11) pitches against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers during their baseball game Wednesday, May 10, 2023, at Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute, Wis / Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK

It's been a very interesting year for the Chicago Cubs.

After their offseason saw them hand Craig Counsell the most lucrative contract in Major League Baseball history, they didn't necessary attack the free agent or trade markets to build a clear contending roster like the front office and ownership group stated they would.

Despite that, the Cubs were at the top of the NL Central standings in the early part of the year even as they were dealing with constant injuries and roster turnover.

Then, it all came crumbling down.

Chicago went through a prolonged stretch of struggles they couldn't recover from, putting them 10 games back of the division lead and six from the final Wild Card spot entering Thursday.

For all intents and purposes, their season is over.

But despite that looking like a foregone conclusion ahead of the trade deadline, the Cubs decided to add some pieces to their roster instead of trading away their best players. The goal of this is to help them immediately contend in 2025 as all of their focus now shifts towards the future.

One area Chicago seemingly doesn't have to pursue this winter is starting pitching.

With Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele, and Jameson Taillon at the top of their rotation, there should be plenty of competition between some of their younger arms to fight for the final two spots behind those three.

Javier Assad, Jordan Wicks, Ben Brown and others who have gotten some time pitching in the bigs will all have a chance to be one of the five starters, but the Cubs are also hoping that their star prospect Cade Horton finds his way into the mix next year.

An issue he will face is recovering from his lat injury that forced him to hit the injured list on May 31 before he was eventually transferred to the 60-day IL after suffering a setback.

Still, they expect their No. 2 ranked prospect to be back for spring.

"We feel confident that he'll be ready to rock and roll come Spring Training, and certainly he'll be part of our plans for next year," general manager Carter Hawkins said per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com.

Horton is an extremely talented pitcher, striking out 157 batters across 122.2 innings pitched with an ERA of 3.15 in his 30 minor league starts. He was able to reach Triple-A in his second season of professional baseball before getting injured.

How he recovers will ultimately decided if he is going to be in the mix for a rotation spot in 2025 or not, but it's clear that Chicago is eyeing the future with Horton starting games for them going forward.