In relief, Cade Horton off to a good start

Cade Horton made it to the big leagues — by that modest accomplishment alone, he's better than most Cubs pitchers drafted in the first round.

Before Horton was drafted seventh overall in 2022, the Cubs had take a pitcher in the first round of the June draft 27 times since the draft's inception in 1966 — and 14 of them never even threw a pitch for the Cubs.

But the history Horton is up against is much more daunting than that. Of those 27 first-round picks, only three played (or have played) in more than three seasons for the Cubs — Kerry Wood (341 games in 12 seasons), Mark Prior (106 games in five seasons) and Mike Harkey (71 games in five seasons. And all three had careers stunted by injuries, with particular lament for Wood and Prior, who had Hall of Fame stuff but could not stay healthy.

So by that measurement, the bar is low for Cade Horton. If it's possible to say a pitcher with a 6.75 ERA is off to a promising start, he's off to a promising start after his big-league debut against the Mets at Citi Field. Horton allowed three runs on four hits — with no walks and five strikeouts — in a 6-5 victory.

He made one costly mistake — a hanging slider that Brett Baty hit for a three-run homer that cut the Cubs' lead to 4-3. It was bad timing, if not a out-and-out fluke. Baty, who homered in his first at-bat in his own MLB debut in 2022 (his very first swing, in fact), came into the Cubs series hitting .190 with one home run in 58 at-bats in 2025. But he hit three homers in a span of eight at-bats against Jameson Taillon, Horton and Julian Merryweather on Friday and Saturday night.

Still, it was only one game. Jordan Wicks (No. 21 in 2021) was even better in his big-league debut in 2023 — allowing one run on five hits with one walk and nine strikeouts in a 10-6 victory over the Pirates. Wicks was 3-0 with 1.99 ERA through his first four starts, but has been subpar since then and currently is at Class AAA Iowa.

Wood's debut on April 12, 1998 was similar to Horton's — without the run support. He allowed four runs on four hits in 4 2/3 innings — he was down 2-0 when he left the game in the fifth inning. Four starts later, he had one of the best performances of any pitcher in baseball history.

Prior, the most anticipated pitching debut since Wood, was as good as advertised in his first game — allowing two runs on four hits with two walks and 10 strikeouts in a 7-4 victory over th Pirates on May 22, 2002.

The list of pitchers taken by the Cubs in the first round of the June draft paints the picture:

• Dick James of Florence, Ala., the Cubs very first draft pick (No. 6 overall in 1965) threw one pitch and got two outs in his big-league debut at 19 in 1967 — getting the only batter he faced (the Giants' Ollie Brown) to hit into a double play. James made his first start 11 days later against the Reds, gave up eight runs (seven earned) and never pitched in the big leagues again.

• Don Schulze, drafted out of Lake Park High School in Roselle in 1980, made his Cubs debut at 20 and threw two scoreless innings of relief against the Expos in 1983 — retiring future Hall of Famers Gary Carter, Tim Raines and Andre Dawson in the process. Schulze pitched in four more games before he was traded to the Indians as part of the historic deal that brought Rick Sutcliffe to the Cubs in 1984.

• Lance Dickson, the Cubs' first-round pick in 1990 out of Arizona, needed just 11 starts (7-3, 0.94) to go from low Class A Geneva to Wrigley Field for his big-league debut against the Cardinals on Aug. 9, 1990. He allowed three runs on eight hits in six innings, with one walk and three strikeouts in a 3-1 loss. He made two more starts (0-2, 9.39 ERA), spent 1991 in Class AAA, had shoulder surgery in 1992 and never again returned to the big leagues.

The Cubs have had better luck trading first-round picks than developing them. Not only was Schulze part of the Sutcliffe trade, but Randy Martz (No. 12 in 1977) was traded to the White Sox for Steve Trout and Warren Brusstar, who helped the Cubs win the NL East to break a 39-year postseason drought; Drew Hall (No. 30 in 1984) was part of the trade that brought Mitch Williams in 1989. And Andrew Cashner (No. 19 in 2008) was traded to the Padres for Anthony Rizzo.

As a top-10 pick, Horton has a better chance to beat the odds as a Cubs first-round draft pick. The last four pitchers drafted in the top 10 have had credible big-league careers — Prior (No. 2 in 2001), Garland, Wood (No. 4 in 1995) and Harkey (No. 4 in 1987).

Now that he's made it this far, staying healthy will be a huge challenge. Horton had Tommy John surgery his freshman year at Oklahoma and was limited to nine starts in the minors in 2024 because of shoulder issues. If he can beat that, he can become the best first-round pick (June draft) to pitch for the Cubs ever. It doesn't take that much.

Cubs pitchers taken in the first round of the June draft (pitchers in green had the most notable MLB careers)