Carter Hawkins: Cubs love Cade Horton's progress but won't rush him to big leagues

Carter Hawkins isn’t ruling out a promotion to the big leagues for Cade Horton this season, but that’s not where the Chicago Cubs have their focus right now.

Chicago’s top pitching prospect was promoted to Triple-A Iowa this week after a dominant run in Double-A. The 22-year-old made four starts for Tennessee, pitching to an impressive 1.10 ERA and 0.918 WHIP. He struck out 18 and walked just two across 16 ⅓ innings this year.

His time in Double-A this season certainly inspires optimism that the 2022 first-round pick’s could become a key part of the Cubs rotation one day. He was promoted twice in 2023, his first full professional season, and didn’t require much time to prove he was deserving of a quick promotion this season.

Hawkins, the Cubs GM, told the Mully & Haugh Show on Thursday that the objective at this point isn’t to fast track Horton to the majors.

“From a promotion standpoint, especially with guys that are quote-unquote our priority players, the question about whether to promote someone is not typically having to do with our need at the big leagues, it’s what’s the best environment for this player to continue to improve?” Hawkins said. “And we felt like that was Triple-A for Cade at this point. We felt like the competition level was going to be a little bit better for him there to continue to help him develop and execute the way that we know he’ll need to be able to do to be able to be dominant in the big leagues, which is the ultimate goal.

“Of course, if he continues to dominate in Triple-A and it’s really clear he can only improve more by going to the big leagues, we would consider pulling that trigger. But right now our focus is on execution, his stuff, his delivery. If he does that, I think the lagging indicator will be a chance for him to help out in the big leagues. But that’s definitely in the future for right now for us, and the focus is just on today with him in Triple-A.”