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Cubs injured ace righty Cade Horton could miss the rest of the 2026 season, a top sports medicine doctor says.

Chicago Cubs ace Cade Horton went on the 15-day injured list Sunday. Two days later, a top sports medicine doctor predicts that Horton will miss the rest of the 2026 season.

When he left Saturday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians after just 17 pitches with what the Cubs described as “right forearm discomfort,” Horton sounded optimistic that the injury was not serious.

“I’m pretty hopeful,” Horton said at that time. “I’m erring on the cautious side so I feel like I made the right move, even though it sucks doing that and putting the bullpen and everybody else in that situation.”

But on Tuesday, prominent Florida-based sports medicine specialist Dr. Jesse Morse issued a far more dire prediction.

“Cubs ace Cade Horton likely done for the season with an elbow injury,” Morse wrote on his social media account.

What happened in between Saturday and Tuesday, and what does it mean for the Cubs’ season if Horton is truly done?

Horton Travels to See Top Elbow Surgeon: Report

Horton was set to undergo an MRI exam on Monday, but the Cubs never released the results. Instead, Chicago general manager Carter Hawkins told a Chicago radio station Monday that the results could come in “this week,” but there was no timeline for when.

But on Tuesday, reporter Jesse Rogers of ESPN said that he was told that the results of Horton’s MRI were dire.

“The news to this point is not good. I want to make sure I report it carefully here, because no decision has been made, but the MRI per multiple sources: ‘not good, not clean,’” Rogers said in an interview, as quoted by the Cubs news site Bleacher Nation. “And so he is going to see Dr. Keith Meister today, that’s the Tommy John guy.”

Horton traveled to Texas on Tuesday, according to Rogers, where he would consult with Meister, a top elbow specialist and former head team physician for the Texas Rangers.

Morse: Horton Will Need Elbow Surgery

The visit with Meister was described as Horton seeking a “second opinion.” But according to Dr. Morse, seeing Meister likely means that surgery will be necessary for Horton.

“This is likely an injury to the UCL, whether it is a partial or full-thickness tear,” Morse wrote. “Dr. Meister is one of the top elbow specialists in the country and the question will come down to if he should have an internal brace procedure or if he needs full Tommy John surgery.”

The internal brace procedure typically carries a shorter recovery time than Tommy John surgery, which entails a full reconstruction of the Ulnar Collateral Ligament.

The UCL is “a strong band of tissue on the pinky finger side of your elbow,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. “This ligament supports your elbow joint. You use it when you raise your arm to throw something overhead.”

Typical recovery time for Tommy John surgery entails a pitcher missing an entire season and often part of a second season. The internal brace operation requires about half of that recovery time.

Either way, Horton would be sidelined for at least the remainder of the 2026 season, leaving the Cubs scrambling to fill the void in their starting rotation left by the team’s 2022 first-round draft pick.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin