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How will Cubs respond to Cade Horton’s season-ending injury? · North Side Territory: A Chicago Cubs Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome into Northside Territory Foul Territory Networks Cubs Podcast. I'm
0:10
Speaker 1: Sahadev Sharma with my partner Patrick Mooney. We are your
0:12
Speaker 1: Cubs beat writers over at the Athletic Patrick. It is
0:17
Speaker 1: bad news for Cad Horton. He is undergoing elbow surgery.
0:23
Speaker 1: He went and saw team doctor Stephen Grislow on Monday
0:29
Speaker 1: and then Keith Meister Tuesday morning. Doctor Keith Meister is
0:33
Speaker 1: obviously very well known doctor in baseball circles. Basically the
0:38
Speaker 1: guy you go see when you know you're likely gonna
0:42
Speaker 1: get undergo surgery. Exactly what surgery isn't clear. That's something
0:48
Speaker 1: apparently that they'll determine when he's under the knife. I
0:52
Speaker 1: think it's revision replacement. No, you know what, I'm gonna
0:57
Speaker 1: screw it up. I can't remember what it is. But
0:59
Speaker 1: there's three things. There's revision, something else and an internal
1:02
Speaker 1: brace or the options. And they'll find out it's going
1:06
Speaker 1: to be anywhere from twelve to eighteen months is my
1:09
Speaker 1: assumption here. He's out for the year. Cad Horton is
1:13
Speaker 1: down for the year. Just a huge blow to the
1:17
Speaker 1: Cubs and what they want to do this year. Obviously,
1:21
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about Caid leading up to this season,
1:25
Speaker 1: how important he is, and what type of picture we
1:27
Speaker 1: think he can be this year, which is an ace, and.
1:32
Speaker 2: He looked like that in his first start.
1:35
Speaker 1: And then obviously the second one he comes out and
1:39
Speaker 1: we get this news.
1:41
Speaker 3: So what you're describing is sort of similar to what
1:45
Speaker 3: Justin Steele underwent with Doctor Meister last year, where they
1:48
Speaker 3: went in and sort of it was exploratory in nature
1:52
Speaker 3: before kind of setting the course. Is that in Layman's terms,
1:58
Speaker 3: kind of what we're looking at here?
2:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, because Steele didn't undergo Tommy John. That's why
2:05
Speaker 1: it's not going to be eighteen months. Yeah, So that like,
2:10
Speaker 1: that's why we can't call this Tommy John. It is
2:12
Speaker 1: elbow surgery. There's ucl damage. The advancements in technology and
2:19
Speaker 1: how they perform surgeries now has have led to different
2:24
Speaker 1: different ways to do this and and we'll see it
2:29
Speaker 1: could be shorter either way. He's not coming back in
2:32
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. That's that's what we know.
2:38
Speaker 3: This is very small example of it. But Kate Horton
2:40
Speaker 3: is someone who feel leading into last year's playoffs, started
2:46
Speaker 3: gathering stuff for like a larger story, like if he's
2:49
Speaker 3: starting Game one of the playoffs at Wrigley Field and
2:52
Speaker 3: then he gets hurt and then kind of started doing
2:56
Speaker 3: that process all over again or sorry, had leftover material,
3:01
Speaker 3: just kind of kept working on it during the off
3:02
Speaker 3: season and spring training, thinking, oh, this guy, you know,
3:06
Speaker 3: who knows his ceiling was uncapped, right like he what
3:10
Speaker 3: if he's starting the All Star Game? What if he's
3:13
Speaker 3: contending for a cy young and then obviously this happens,
3:19
Speaker 3: and so on a much larger scale, I think if
3:21
Speaker 3: you're the Cubs, like, can you really count on this
3:24
Speaker 3: guy ever again? I mean, hopefully he gets a full
3:29
Speaker 3: recovery and all of the intangibles that the Cubs appreciated
3:32
Speaker 3: about him, you know, will carry forward. But when you
3:37
Speaker 3: look at a guy who had Tommy John surgery in college,
3:42
Speaker 3: it's just going to be harder to sort of project
3:45
Speaker 3: him as that like true ace, you know, a guy
3:49
Speaker 3: who can sort of like carry a pitching staff like
3:51
Speaker 3: still could be a very good pitcher. He's extremely talented.
3:59
Speaker 3: It's just that these things have added up at a
4:02
Speaker 3: really young young age for kid.
4:06
Speaker 1: Absolutely, it's interesting, Like you said, Tommy John in twenty
4:10
Speaker 1: twenty one, in college shoulder injury in twenty twenty four
4:15
Speaker 1: while in the minors with the Cubs last year was.
4:19
Speaker 2: A broken rib.
4:20
Speaker 1: That's kind of like I wouldn't call that, you know,
4:25
Speaker 1: in the same realm, but still an injury. And now
4:29
Speaker 1: this talking to Carter Hawkins the GM like some of
4:33
Speaker 1: these things I feel like feel inevitable sometimes or it's like, yeah,
4:39
Speaker 1: we weren't blindsided by this. Let's just take Justin Steele
4:43
Speaker 1: for an example. He had four arm elbow discomfort. You know,
4:50
Speaker 1: six months before this surgery. If you remember in twenty
4:55
Speaker 1: and twenty four, there was like a brief shutdown. I
4:59
Speaker 1: believe it was like you know, I think it was
5:02
Speaker 1: a minimum eyel stint or maybe just skip to start.
5:05
Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly what happened, but there was something something.
5:08
Speaker 3: Was almost like cramps, like like that was sort of yeah.
5:13
Speaker 1: But and those things are often a precursor to like Okay,
5:19
Speaker 1: something's up in there, and these are you know, you know,
5:22
Speaker 1: people call it like a ticking time bomb or something
5:25
Speaker 1: like that, like this is going to happen when how long?
5:29
Speaker 2: Those are the questions with this, you.
5:32
Speaker 1: Know, Carter was like, it's like the it's like the
5:35
Speaker 1: car accident where you get t boned, like someone blows
5:39
Speaker 1: the red light and t bones you're completely unexpected. Because
5:42
Speaker 1: there were no signs, and they handled him with kid gloves.
5:45
Speaker 1: They they were very careful after the twenty four injury.
5:49
Speaker 1: They they rarely broke down his delivery and kind of
5:53
Speaker 1: like redid things and focus on this is how you
5:56
Speaker 1: stay healthy, this is this is what was going on,
5:59
Speaker 1: this is why your VLA drop it, and this is
6:01
Speaker 1: why your shoulder was barking. And he rarely took to
6:06
Speaker 1: it and came out and had a brilliant twenty five.
6:10
Speaker 1: As the innings jumped and they started monitoring the pitch count,
6:14
Speaker 1: very diligent about that. Cade was very diligent in the
6:19
Speaker 1: off season with this throwing program. Wanted to stay healthy,
6:23
Speaker 1: wanted to stay fresh, wanted to kind of build off
6:26
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five. There were no signs for this,
6:31
Speaker 1: and it sounds like this came out of nowhere in
6:35
Speaker 1: the sense like sometimes you feel like, okay, there's something
6:39
Speaker 1: going on in that elbow, but we don't know when
6:41
Speaker 1: it but you can work through it. That wasn't the
6:44
Speaker 1: case here. There was no like a lingering soreness after
6:48
Speaker 1: starts or whatever.
6:50
Speaker 2: It may be.
6:53
Speaker 1: In that sense, this was a complete surprise. But you
6:57
Speaker 1: make a good point, like this is now the second
6:59
Speaker 1: lo surgery in five years. What you know, Craig Council
7:06
Speaker 1: is like he's going to come back and he's going
7:07
Speaker 1: to be great, like he you know, I think that
7:11
Speaker 1: that's the power of positivity type of mindset that you
7:13
Speaker 1: have to have. You can't, you don't. You don't want
7:16
Speaker 1: to put negative thoughts out there. I get that, but
7:19
Speaker 1: you're right, like, who knows. We don't know what the
7:22
Speaker 1: next steps are for Kate Horton's career, when when he's
7:27
Speaker 1: back on the mound, what he'll look like and how
7:29
Speaker 1: he will perform. Uh, we don't know when baseball will
7:33
Speaker 1: be back in twenty twenty seven to two. So maybe
7:35
Speaker 1: that's almost like working in his favor. The one the
7:38
Speaker 1: one thing that doesn't work there is like it's like
7:42
Speaker 1: he doesn't get to work with the team. But my
7:45
Speaker 1: guess is they're already planning for that, like they like
7:49
Speaker 1: the second, like you know, the second the season ends,
7:52
Speaker 1: or the second you know, November thirtieth or whatever, they're
7:55
Speaker 1: going to be talking to Kate. Here's the plan, here's
7:58
Speaker 1: what we need you to do. You know, they're not
8:01
Speaker 1: supposed to be in contact with these guys once the
8:04
Speaker 1: lockout starts, but uh, that's something that I'm.
8:07
Speaker 2: Sure they're they're planning for well in advance.
8:12
Speaker 3: I'm just curious. Obviously, Carter has the front office perspective.
8:16
Speaker 3: You mentioned Council's positivity, and he's someone who's always sort
8:20
Speaker 3: of pragmatic about these things, but what was the mood
8:23
Speaker 3: inside the clubhouse down at the trout.
8:27
Speaker 1: So Counsel was like, you know, basically said, this is
8:31
Speaker 1: an opportunity, like an opportunity for others to step up.
8:35
Speaker 1: Carter's like, look, we prepared for the worst all off season.
8:39
Speaker 2: That's what you do.
8:40
Speaker 1: You build up depth. So now like that work was
8:45
Speaker 1: done in the off season and now it continues. And
8:49
Speaker 1: then in the player with the players, and we talked
8:52
Speaker 1: to them after a really nice win on Tuesday night,
8:56
Speaker 1: and to a man, you know, they're like heartbroken Forcade,
9:00
Speaker 1: really upset for Kate, but we got to step up
9:02
Speaker 1: and do what's needed. We got to push through this,
9:06
Speaker 1: find ways to win. Other players need to step up,
9:10
Speaker 1: and they will. They're very confident that other guys will
9:14
Speaker 1: step up and perform and do what needs to be done.
9:18
Speaker 1: But yeah, obviously people there was a lot of talk
9:21
Speaker 1: of Kay does things the right way. He's a great pitcher,
9:26
Speaker 1: one of our best players. We're gonna miss him. You
9:29
Speaker 1: can't replace what he does. A lot of that people,
9:33
Speaker 1: but no like heads hanging and no defeatist attitude in there.
9:39
Speaker 1: It was just, you know, sadness for a guy that
9:42
Speaker 1: they they've grown close to and that they trust and
9:44
Speaker 1: and who like I said, goes about it the right
9:47
Speaker 1: way and they like they like that he's he's got
9:49
Speaker 1: the right mentality, the right attitude and work ethics. So
9:55
Speaker 1: they were upset for him, but they also understand there's
9:59
Speaker 1: a task get hand. It's early in the season, right
10:01
Speaker 1: where we're eleven games into the season, So they can't
10:05
Speaker 1: hang their heads. They can't they can't act like all
10:08
Speaker 1: is over. If they did that, that would be a
10:10
Speaker 1: huge red flag. Patrick, Why don't we take a quick
10:14
Speaker 1: break and then kind of talk through what's what are
10:19
Speaker 1: the options here? What are the next steps? So how
10:22
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11:25
Speaker 1: All right, Patrick in On on Tuesday night, the first
11:31
Speaker 1: option I guess to step up Hoavi or Asad did
11:33
Speaker 1: exactly that. I believe it was five and two thirds
11:37
Speaker 1: innings of shutout baseball. Javier Asad looked great, looked like
11:44
Speaker 1: prototypical Hobby. This is what he does when he's called upon.
11:50
Speaker 1: He's been I'm not sure if he's ever really had
11:55
Speaker 1: like that permanent rotation spot or been guaranteed a spot
11:58
Speaker 1: he's been yo yo da la. Uh and and he
12:02
Speaker 1: steps up. He handles it with a plumb and and
12:04
Speaker 1: goes out there and performs.
12:06
Speaker 2: Uh.
12:06
Speaker 1: This felt like a you know, there's no such thing
12:08
Speaker 1: as a must win this early in the season. The
12:10
Speaker 1: Cobs are two games under five hundred, but you know,
12:12
Speaker 1: I think a momentum UH like it. You know, you
12:15
Speaker 1: need a little bit of positive momentum after the bad
12:18
Speaker 1: news and then after some tough losses. Uh And, and
12:22
Speaker 1: Hobby was there to step up. He's he's number one
12:25
Speaker 1: on the list to step up. We know Colin Ray
12:28
Speaker 1: came in for relief. He'll start tonight in Saint Pete
12:33
Speaker 1: against the Rays. Uh and and those are the two
12:38
Speaker 1: names right now that that you're gonna focus on. Uh.
12:41
Speaker 1: But but you know what else are the Cubs gonna do?
12:44
Speaker 1: I guess is the question? Or or is it just
12:46
Speaker 1: like rely on these guys as the as the season
12:50
Speaker 1: goes along. Oh sorry, I keep doing this, I keep
12:55
Speaker 1: muting you and not unmuting you.
12:56
Speaker 2: There you go.
12:57
Speaker 3: The uh, the Colin Ray Javier Asada experience. They are
13:04
Speaker 3: sort of often overlooked or maybe undervalued, and maybe that's
13:08
Speaker 3: not fair, but I think the name that people are
13:10
Speaker 3: really curious about right now is Lucas Gilio, and reading
13:13
Speaker 3: your coverage in the Athletic, I didn't get like an
13:16
Speaker 3: enthusiastic yes, But I also didn't get like a hard no.
13:21
Speaker 3: Where do you think they're at with that free agent? Yeah?
13:25
Speaker 1: I mean when we asked if they look outside the organization,
13:32
Speaker 1: Carter Hawkins response was essentially like, Okay, those moves usually
13:38
Speaker 1: don't happen in April, right. The people are going to
13:40
Speaker 1: point to the Quinn priest Or trade. I know Quinn
13:43
Speaker 1: Priester worked out really well for the for the Breweries
13:47
Speaker 1: last year, but they paid at the time that was
13:49
Speaker 1: a high price. They paid a draft pick and true
13:52
Speaker 1: two prospects, very high price. The Brewers nailed that trade,
13:56
Speaker 1: did a really good job. He pointed out that it's
13:59
Speaker 1: hard to make trades right now, very rare yes, they
14:03
Speaker 1: will look, you know, explore and just keep an eye
14:06
Speaker 1: out for things. But the most likely thing for right
14:10
Speaker 1: now is internal options. I think the things they need
14:14
Speaker 1: to consider and that that they will consider with Lucas
14:17
Speaker 1: Gilido is first of all, it's price and and that
14:20
Speaker 1: doesn't mean they don't have money to spend, it's they're
14:23
Speaker 1: they're going to look at the value and is this
14:26
Speaker 1: proper value if he comes for you know, super cheap. Yeah,
14:32
Speaker 1: I don't think they'd think much about it that Adam.
14:35
Speaker 1: That obviously, like my assumption as Gilida wouldn't still be
14:40
Speaker 1: out on the market if he was coming for super cheap.
14:44
Speaker 1: And then if you start saying, like you know what,
14:47
Speaker 1: let's say five six million dollars, that's not a crazy price.
14:51
Speaker 1: But also, is he better than Colin Ray? Is he
14:54
Speaker 1: a better option than Javier Asad? Like where does he
14:56
Speaker 1: fall in the pecking order? There's the Cubs have a
14:59
Speaker 1: lot of options. Uh, the debate would be like are
15:03
Speaker 1: they great options? But right now we mentioned the top two,
15:06
Speaker 1: it's Colin Ray and Javier Asad. Vince of Velasquez is
15:10
Speaker 1: down in the miners. Giulido would be above him in
15:13
Speaker 1: the pecking order. Jordan Wicks is hurt right now, but like,
15:17
Speaker 1: where does he fall into things? Justin Steele will be
15:20
Speaker 1: back early junish. Let's say, uh, what happens to your
15:26
Speaker 1: rotation when he when he returns, who do you bump out?
15:30
Speaker 1: How do you like maneuver things? Especially if you add
15:33
Speaker 1: Giolito Jackson Wiggins top prospect probably a few months away
15:41
Speaker 1: if if you know things go well. Kyle Wright is
15:45
Speaker 1: kind of a wild card in all of this. How
15:47
Speaker 1: does he fit into things? I think they they like
15:50
Speaker 1: what like the possibilities with him, but he hasn't He
15:54
Speaker 1: hasn't pitied a game yet.
15:55
Speaker 2: He hasn't yet.
15:56
Speaker 1: He's not like that, Like he's far away from from
15:59
Speaker 1: getting in aims and really ramping up that rehab.
16:03
Speaker 2: I'm probably missing.
16:04
Speaker 1: Someone else that they like that they've done a good
16:07
Speaker 1: job of just like adding depth names. But I think
16:09
Speaker 1: that's the that's the core.
16:11
Speaker 2: Ben Ben Brown.
16:13
Speaker 1: I did ask about Ben Brown ass council, like is
16:17
Speaker 1: it a debate? Do you send him down and kind
16:19
Speaker 1: of stretch him out? Like is that He's like, look,
16:21
Speaker 1: that's a discussion that you know is relevant today that
16:24
Speaker 1: wasn't yesterday. But but he like the I said or
16:30
Speaker 1: is he already stretched out? He's he's pitched like almost
16:33
Speaker 1: forty to fifty pitches in each in each outing three
16:36
Speaker 1: and two thirds three and two thirds and two I
16:39
Speaker 1: believe are his innings totals, and he's essentially almost stretched out. Yes,
16:46
Speaker 1: he could be an option. I know he frustrates fans
16:50
Speaker 1: and with good reason, like he's so tantalizing, but then
16:52
Speaker 1: he'll go out there and walk too many guys, or
16:55
Speaker 1: or throw the fastball down the middle and get hit hard.
16:58
Speaker 2: You're always wondering if.
17:00
Speaker 1: I'm thinking click with him, because he could be impactful,
17:03
Speaker 1: But right now they're not. They're they're not changing his
17:06
Speaker 1: role or or sending him down to get further stretched out.
17:10
Speaker 2: Uh.
17:11
Speaker 1: But yes, I think Gilito is a very minor option.
17:15
Speaker 1: Is something they'll keep tabs on if they sign. I'd
17:17
Speaker 1: be a little surprised if they sign him unless the
17:21
Speaker 1: price makes absolute sense and unless they see something that
17:25
Speaker 1: is like, yeah, this is this is the guy that
17:27
Speaker 1: can be a difference maker. I'm not sure how much
17:31
Speaker 1: better than Assad and Ray he is. It would all
17:34
Speaker 1: we have to Like he's been throwing, but he'd need
17:37
Speaker 1: a few minor league tune up games. I would assume
17:39
Speaker 1: at least a lot of times these guys that miss
17:43
Speaker 1: spring training just don't have good years. I think you
17:47
Speaker 1: have to consider that when weighing him versus Ray and
17:49
Speaker 1: Assad as well. And I think, like our Ray and
17:53
Speaker 1: Assad Kate Horton, No, but we can't assume Lucas Gilito is.
17:59
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's like that, like he's he
18:02
Speaker 1: he had good he had good results last year, but
18:05
Speaker 1: the strikeouts were way down.
18:07
Speaker 2: He has a long injury history.
18:10
Speaker 1: Just to you know, I'm not sure if that's like
18:12
Speaker 1: a slam dunk edition there.
18:17
Speaker 3: I'm with you, like, I don't think the cub has
18:19
Speaker 3: been very high on Lucas Giolito. You know, he's popped
18:23
Speaker 3: up kind of over the years as a free agent,
18:27
Speaker 3: and the Cubs have never really sort of like targeted
18:32
Speaker 3: him or seemed all that like enthusiastic about like let's
18:36
Speaker 3: get him and bring him in and if we do X,
18:38
Speaker 3: Y and Z, you know, we can help him sort
18:41
Speaker 3: of recapture what he was. We had a nice year
18:44
Speaker 3: with Boston last year. But I'm with you on the
18:49
Speaker 3: whole missing spring training and then sort of trying to
18:53
Speaker 3: play catch up the rest of the year. The Cubs
18:56
Speaker 3: know that's not a great formula for success, and you know,
18:59
Speaker 3: maybe maybe things have changed, maybe some other injury pops up,
19:03
Speaker 3: and you know, they can't really afford to wait for
19:06
Speaker 3: some of these other options to develop, whether it's still
19:09
Speaker 3: getting healthy or the trademarket to materialize, which I mean realistically,
19:16
Speaker 3: you're looking at late July early August before onboarding, you
19:21
Speaker 3: know someone like that, and we know everyone's gonna need pitching, uh,
19:26
Speaker 3: and it's still sort of to be determined, you know
19:29
Speaker 3: how all in the Cubs will want to go. Certainly,
19:33
Speaker 3: last year's deadline was rather underwhelming for a team that
19:36
Speaker 3: was in and around first place. So I think you
19:42
Speaker 3: kind of have to you know, Like I said, this
19:45
Speaker 3: is why they developed created all this depth. And I
19:49
Speaker 3: know you're not, like even if you're not super high
19:52
Speaker 3: on Ben Brown or maybe you're skeptical about a sod
19:55
Speaker 3: like you've had these guys around for a long time
19:58
Speaker 3: in your organization for this exact reason and to sort
20:02
Speaker 3: of deviate all of a sudden doesn't make a whole
20:07
Speaker 3: lot of sense to me. But yeah, like if if
20:10
Speaker 3: Matthew Boy's injury is worse than they uh, you claimed
20:14
Speaker 3: it to be a couple of days ago. If some
20:17
Speaker 3: other pitcher walks in and you know, his shoulder elbow
20:21
Speaker 3: was barking, then certainly reassessed. But I think there's something
20:24
Speaker 3: to be said for, like, given some of these guys,
20:27
Speaker 3: you know, some of this some runway and to you know,
20:31
Speaker 3: kind of show what they got.
20:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, these are these are quality pictures like
20:38
Speaker 1: Asad and Ray have been have been really valuable for
20:42
Speaker 1: this team over for Yeah, for these guys over the years,
20:45
Speaker 1: and I think they're trusted. And we saw what Asad
20:48
Speaker 1: did on Tuesday. I'm not saying he's gonna go out
20:51
Speaker 1: there and throw six shut out every single time, but
20:54
Speaker 1: he's a guy that battles and gives you a chance
20:56
Speaker 1: to win. And here here's the other thing, Patrick, we
20:59
Speaker 1: feelocus on the pitching so much. They need more games
21:02
Speaker 1: like guyes today. Now, I'm not saying they need to
21:04
Speaker 1: average nine runs game, but this is an offense as
21:07
Speaker 1: capable of putting up runs and they haven't done it
21:10
Speaker 1: consistently yet at eleven games end of the season.
21:14
Speaker 2: No need to overreact.
21:16
Speaker 1: But Bregman's finally getting results. Finally got some results last night.
21:21
Speaker 1: Pete Armstrong pulled a ball hard in the air. That's
21:25
Speaker 1: huge for him. Sometimes all it is is one swing
21:29
Speaker 1: with him and he'll get hot. Maybe the offense can
21:33
Speaker 1: carry them until Justin Steel comes back, Justin.
21:36
Speaker 2: Steele comes back.
21:36
Speaker 1: If he's close to what he was before that that's
21:40
Speaker 1: a huge addition. Yes, in an ideal scenario, he's teamed
21:43
Speaker 1: up with you know, Cad Horton at the front of
21:48
Speaker 1: that rotation and you have like this one two three
21:50
Speaker 1: of Horton, Steele and Edward Cabrera with Matthew Boyd as
21:54
Speaker 1: an all star and you know jameson Town as a
21:57
Speaker 1: steady veteran. Yeah, that's not that's not the reality that
22:02
Speaker 1: they're living in.
22:03
Speaker 2: It showed him. Minaga is still here. Look, I think
22:07
Speaker 2: they have a really.
22:08
Speaker 1: Good rotation and a really good team. Still, Kate Horton
22:12
Speaker 1: being out kind of dings the upside in a sense.
22:17
Speaker 1: But the goals are still like the ultimate goal. I
22:20
Speaker 1: think it's still possible. It's just it's not going it's
22:24
Speaker 1: not going to be as easy and and you don't
22:26
Speaker 1: have that like really sexy guy at the top that's
22:29
Speaker 1: just like, oh, this is the ace ace guy because
22:33
Speaker 1: he like that's what Kate Horton had the chance of being.
22:37
Speaker 1: But the Cubs can't look at it as like a
22:40
Speaker 1: hang their head and and like all is lost.
22:43
Speaker 2: They can't.
22:43
Speaker 1: They have to look at it as like you gotta
22:46
Speaker 1: like this is what happens over the course of the season,
22:48
Speaker 1: and now we got to go with who we have
22:50
Speaker 1: and go out and win some games.
22:53
Speaker 3: We spend a lot of time talking about the pitching
22:55
Speaker 3: plans without mentioning Edward Cabrera until just now, and that
23:00
Speaker 3: sort of reminds me of like, Yeah, this guy's super talented,
23:03
Speaker 3: but has also been very injury prone throughout his career,
23:06
Speaker 3: and they made that gamble thinking maybe they could help
23:11
Speaker 3: him a little bit that the upside you just couldn't
23:13
Speaker 3: turn down. The price was right. They have, you know,
23:17
Speaker 3: potentially three years of club control to whether some of
23:20
Speaker 3: that if there are injury issues that arise. But he
23:26
Speaker 3: certainly is front and center right now. I think it's
23:31
Speaker 3: less of sort of hoping you can manage him through
23:34
Speaker 3: a full season, more like, no, he's going to have
23:36
Speaker 3: to be a dude, like you know, for most of
23:39
Speaker 3: this season and certainly in October if that's where this
23:43
Speaker 3: is headed.
23:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, Cabrera if he can take it to another level.
23:49
Speaker 1: I mean, this is you know, like I said, they
23:52
Speaker 1: weren't expecting a kid Horton injury, but they were bracing
23:56
Speaker 1: themselves for something because they know how how pitching works,
24:01
Speaker 1: and they needed more depth. They couldn't have guys go down.
24:05
Speaker 1: And then suddenly they're saying, we don't have enough pitchers
24:08
Speaker 1: to step up.
24:09
Speaker 2: Uh, they have guys.
24:10
Speaker 1: Uh, this is what they planned for all winter long,
24:14
Speaker 1: and and we've been talking about it a lot.
24:16
Speaker 2: Didn't want this guy to go down, but such as such.
24:20
Speaker 1: As life, and then they have to they have to
24:23
Speaker 1: weather the storm.
24:23
Speaker 2: And Edward Cabrera is a big piece of this.
24:25
Speaker 1: He's he's got to step up and and be that
24:28
Speaker 1: guy that kind of leads the rotation. And if you
24:31
Speaker 1: can weather the storm until Steel comes back, it'll it'll
24:35
Speaker 1: feel a little bit better if you if you're hovering,
24:39
Speaker 1: you know, not far or ahead of the Brewers and
24:42
Speaker 1: the Reds and all these teams and the Pirates. I mean,
24:44
Speaker 1: they're they're all looking solid. So that's the other thing.
24:47
Speaker 1: It's not like it's not like the division looks like
24:49
Speaker 1: a cake walk in any sense. So uh got to
24:54
Speaker 1: be prepared for a battle, and and you know, we
24:57
Speaker 1: knew the Brewers weren't going anywhere, but the Reds look
25:00
Speaker 1: are getting hot right now and the Pirates are young
25:03
Speaker 1: and feisty.
25:04
Speaker 2: So, uh, we'll see, We'll see what happens here.
25:08
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not willing to say it's over or
25:10
Speaker 1: anything like that, just because the whole point of this
25:12
Speaker 1: offseason was building depth. Uh, and now they're just being
25:16
Speaker 1: tested early. Uh, but you know, not ideal.
25:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just it's it is really. I'm just unfortunate
25:26
Speaker 3: for Kate. I think we, you know, for his debut
25:30
Speaker 3: last year, like that felt like an event. You know,
25:32
Speaker 3: we're kind of you know, writing stories for that, and
25:35
Speaker 3: you know, this guy whatever, it was like the highest
25:37
Speaker 3: drafted college pitcher for the Cubs since Mart prior. What
25:43
Speaker 3: he showed, not just on the field, but just the
25:46
Speaker 3: way Cubs people talk about Kate Horton, just his competitiveness,
25:50
Speaker 3: his focus. Uh, just a great fit for this group
25:56
Speaker 3: and this moment. And with your young pictures, we've seen it.
26:01
Speaker 3: They only get so many October's, right, and you know
26:05
Speaker 3: one was taken off the table last year. This year's
26:09
Speaker 3: already xed out, and you know everyone hopes for a
26:14
Speaker 3: full recovery. Pictures have come back from this obviously, but
26:21
Speaker 3: it's just there is sort of no light at the
26:25
Speaker 3: end of the tunnel right now, like it's going to
26:26
Speaker 3: be a lot of you knows. Councils said, monotonous work
26:30
Speaker 3: for k to just get back into the conversation.
26:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I really hate listening to these guys talk
26:38
Speaker 1: about that part of it because it does sound a
26:40
Speaker 1: little depressing, like how you're kind of like off, you know,
26:44
Speaker 1: in Arizona working and like Council's point was, like you
26:49
Speaker 1: put all this monotonous work in you do you deal
26:52
Speaker 1: with the grind for because you love to compete, and
26:55
Speaker 1: now that's taken off the table. So it's hard for
26:57
Speaker 1: these guys. Uh.
26:59
Speaker 2: But but he'll but he'll put his head.
27:01
Speaker 1: Down and he'll he'll get after it, and you know,
27:05
Speaker 1: he'll be back, hopefully, hopefully it's back and looking like
27:09
Speaker 1: Cad you know, a year and a half from now,
27:11
Speaker 1: where we're less than that. We're talking about gate Orton
27:13
Speaker 1: returning because certainly was fun to has been fun to
27:18
Speaker 1: cover and watch and he's the type of guy you're like, yeah.
27:21
Speaker 2: This is this is a dude. You root for because
27:23
Speaker 2: he seems to go about it the right way.
27:26
Speaker 1: All right, we'll be back with hopefully a mailbag episode,
27:30
Speaker 1: take some of your questions and discuss.
27:34
Speaker 2: This early season.
27:36
Speaker 1: You know, I don't I don't even know if it
27:38
Speaker 1: struggles or whatever it is, because they put up another
27:41
Speaker 1: monster offensive game tonight.
27:43
Speaker 2: Is it even a struggle?
27:44
Speaker 1: Like they're they're back to five hundred and and staying
27:47
Speaker 1: alive and trying to stay relevant here. All right, thanks
27:50
Speaker 1: so much for listening everyone, This is Northside Territory. Make
27:54
Speaker 1: sure to rate, review, subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel,
27:56
Speaker 1: and subscribe to The Athletic where Patrick and I are
27:59
Speaker 1: on top of all things Cubs. Thanks for listening everyone.
28:02
Speaker 2: Take care,