Cardinals division rival fearing the worst after ace pitcher's injury

The NL Central always figured to be a competitive division this year, and thus far, it's lived up to the billing with four teams at .500 or above after the first 10 games of the season.

What's surprising is the team that's fallen below that threshold: the Chicago Cubs. After winning 92 games last year, most figured the St. Louis Cardinals' archrival would be gearing up for an even better encore in 2026 after adding Alex Bregman and Edward Cabrera over the offseason.

Alas, they've opened their campaign by trudging to a 4-6 record. But that's not even the worst of it; the team's best pitcher, Cade Horton, may now be on track to miss the remainder of the year after suffering a forearm injury in his last start.

Though there's no official diagnosis quite yet, it sounds as though Horton is trending toward an elbow surgery. If it winds up being Tommy John, it would be the second such procedure of his career. The Cubs are built around a powerful offense, so they may be able to stave off some natural regression, but this is about as devastating of a blow as you can face this early in the season.

Cubs lose ace Cade Horton as Cardinals usurp them in NL Central standings

Even without Horton, the Cubs are probably a better on-paper team than the rebuilding Redbirds, but that doesn't change the fact that only one of them looks the part of a contender right now. The Cardinals have gotten a little lucky in the early going (-9 run differential with a 5-5 record), but they've looked far better prepared than their rivals in Chicago.

Perhaps most problematically for the Cubs, Horton's injury isn't the only one they have to weather. Star slugger Seiya Suzuki has been out since spring training with a knee injury suffered in the World Baseball Classic, and Opening Day starter Matthew Boyd is joining Horton on the injured list with a bicep injury. Factor in the absence of Justin Steele, who has been out since last April with his own elbow troubles, and it's fair to say that the North Siders are currently missing their three best starting pitchers.

If you're a fan of Cubs misery (who isn't), then you should probably be whetting your appetite. After series with the Rays and Pirates this week, the team will enter a gauntlet against the best teams in the National League, including the Phillies, Mets, Dodgers, and Padres.

That was already going to be a tough stretch of schedule to survive. Without Horton and Boyd in tow to lead the rotation, the Cubs may be staring down an insurmountable deficit in the NL Central by the end of April.