The Chicago Cubs have a pitching prospect that is rated among the Top 10 right-handed prospects in the game.
Cade Horton is a name growing more familiar to Cubs fans, and not just because he was the franchise’s first-round pick out of Oklahoma in 2022.
In less than two years he’s rocketed through Chicago’s system and ended last season at Double-A Tennessee.
Now, MLB.com ranks him as the No. 3 right-handed pitching prospect in baseball.
Why? It’s in part because of one of his secondary pitches, his slider. He was one of four pitchers in a separate poll of MLB executives in which they rated Horton’s slider among the best in the game among both right-handers and left-handers.
Horton is the No. 2 prospect in the Cubs’ organization and he’s one of three pitchers in the organization’s Top 10, along with another right-hander, Ben Brown (No. 6) and a left-hander, Jordan Wicks (No. 10), who made his MLB debut last season.
Horton built off his exceptional 2022 at Oklahoma, where he went 5-2 with a 4.86 ERA in 14 games (11 starts), in 2023 as he started his season at Class-A Myrtle Beach and ascended to Tennessee. The Cubs shut him down after he led Oklahoma on a deep College World Series run.
Last year Horton went 4-4 with a 2.65 ERA in 21 starts this season with Class-A Myrtle Beach, High Class-A South Bend and Double-A Tennessee. He threw 88.1 innings, giving up just 61 hits and 32 runs (28 earned) and had a 1.00 WHIP.
He also struck out 117 and walked 27, while also allowing batters to hit just .191 against him.
Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes was No. 1, followed by Detroit’s Jackson Jobe. After Horton, the rest of the Top 10 included Philadelphia’s Andrew Painter, Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski, Cincinnati’s Rhett Lowder, Philadelphia’s Mick Abel, Colorado’s Chase Dollander, San Diego’s Dylan Lesko and Miami’s Noble Meyer.
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