Brewers’ arch-rival loses key rotation piece for rest of 2026 season

Not only did 2025 produce another chapter of the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs' heated rivalry, with the two teams meeting in the postseason for the first time, but there was also a competition between the two NL Central clubs in the Rookie of the Year race. Though Atlanta Braves catcher and Wisconsin native Drake Baldwin ended up taking home the NL Rookie of the Year honors last year, second place went to Cubs' starter Cade Horton, and in third place was Brewers' third baseman Caleb Durbin.

Fast forward to the second week of the 2026 regular season, and neither Durbin nor Horton is playing for their respective 2025 teams. The Brewers traded Durbin to the Boston Red Sox this offseason, a deal that has looked very good for Milwaukee's front office in the early goings of the 2026 campaign. Horton's unavailability for the Cubs is a far bleaker situation.

As revealed by Cubs' manager Craig Counsell earlier this week, Horton is set to undergo season-ending elbow surgery.

Cubs lose 2025 Rookie of the Year runner-up Cade Horton to season-ending elbow surgery

Horton made his MLB debut in Chicago's rotation on May 10 of last year, and it took him a few starts to settle in. He was sporting a 4.80 ERA after his ninth MLB start, but when the calendar flipped to July, the then-23-year-old right-hander turned a corner and didn't look back. From the start of July through the end of the season, Horton made 14 starts for the North Siders and posted a dazzling 1.36 ERA.

At the end of September, however, Horton suffered a right rib fracture and was forced to miss the entirety of the 2025 postseason, during which the Brewers defeated the Cubs in five memorable games in the NLDS. Despite the injury, Horton enjoyed a mostly healthy offseason, and expectations were understandably high for the young right-hander entering the 2026 campaign.

Horton was excellent for the Cubs in his first start of the season, covering 6.1 innings on just 75 pitches and allowing just two earned runs to the Washington Nationals in Chicago's lone win of their Opening Series. However, in his second start, a matchup with the Cleveland Guardians, Horton lasted just one inning before forearm tightness forced Counsell to pull his key rotation piece from the contest. As it so often is, that forearm tightness was an indication of damage to the ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow, and further testing revealed that Horton needed surgery to repair said damage.

It's no doubt a significant blow to a Cubs' rotation that is already without Opening Day starter Matt Boyd, who landed on the IL with a biceps strain earlier this week. Left-hander Justin Steele isn't expected to return until late May at the earliest, forcing the Cubs to turn to Javier Assad and former Brewer Colin Rea in the meantime.

Both the Cubs and Brewers have suffered a number of injuries to start the 2026 season, with the latter currently playing without Jackson Chourio, Andrew Vaughn, Quinn Priester, and Jared Koenig. However, outside of potentially Koenig, all of the Brewers' injured players are expected to return by mid-May. The loss of Horton for the entire season is certainly the most significant of the bunch.