Some injury updates on a couple young Chicago Cubs pitchers for whom the 2024 season was cut very short.
First, Jordan Wicks has recovered from his recurrent oblique issue, which it turns out was not entirely to oblique. Via the Sun-Times: “Left-hander Jordan Wicks’ season ended a couple weeks early, when he began feeling discomfort near his oblique. He’d already spent two and a half months on the IL for a strained right oblique. But he and the Cubs were encouraged when imaging showed that his late-season injury was actually a rib issue, which was causing tightness in the area.”
I’m not entirely sure why that’s encouraging, but hey, if the Cubs prefer a rib issue to an oblique issue, that sounds fine to me. Wicks, 25, should have a normal offseason, after which he’ll compete for a rotation spot in Spring Training. When he’s been healthy, Wicks has had the look to me of a quality mid-rotation big league starter. I know what the results are, but it’s one of those situations where I’m trusting what I see a little more than where the ball bounces. If he stays healthy and gets over this hump, Wicks is going to be a good big league starting pitcher.
Meanwhile, Cade Horton missed most of the 2024 season after suffering a subscapularis strain in his right shoulder in late-May. Although he tried to ramp back up after a period of rest, there was a setback, and he wasn’t able to return to action this year.
The good news is that there is optimism for Horton, 23, to have a normal throwing program this offseason. The Sun-Times reports that Horton is on track to start a throwing progression this offseason, which would seemingly put him in line to have a relatively normal Spring Training. I tend to think his start to the season might be delayed in any case (both as part of a careful ramp up and also because he’s not going to be able to jump to 150 innings next year), but it’s good to hear that things are normal-ish as of this moment.
From our last discussion of Horton, which still holds:
“It’s good to know that, for all intents and purposes, Horton is now over this particular injury. A normal offseason can theoretically proceed, and then a normal ramp-up to and through Spring Training.
Where you will have concerns – and there’s just no way to shake them – is that Horton has already had a setback with this injury once before, and shoulder issues are simply scary. They tend to be less black and white than elbow injuries, insofar as shoulder issues sometimes allow you to be on the field, but with degraded performance. And shoulder surgery generally has a less easily projectable recovery than elbow surgery. And Horton, by the way, has already had elbow surgery in his career.
So, yeah. You’re not going to be able to shake those worries. “The best predictor of a future injury is a past injury” and all that. Until we ACTUALLY see Horton in a game and looking like his 2023 self, the concerns will persist.
BUT! At least we know he’s healthy now and DID NOT require surgery. Those are big things. Now we just wait.
Oh, and my guess, by the way, is that the Cubs will take it very carefully with Horton’s ramp-up next year. It’s possible, even if everything is going perfectly, that he won’t actually make his season debut until some chunk of time into the season. He is Rule 5 eligible after next season, so the Cubs won’t have any reason to hold him back in the second half if he looks like a potential big league contributor, but obviously we’re a long ways from discussing something like that.”