The Chicago Cubs are above .500 for the first time in 2026 as they crushed the New York Mets 12-4 in Friday’s series opener. The offense scored double-digit runs for the third straight game, and Edward Cabrera kept the Mets in check just enough, delivering a quality start to earn his second win of the year. However, there was one scary moment at the Friendly Confines as the Cubs nearly experienced a horrific injury on the mound.

This team has already suffered through a boatload of pitching injuries, so it would have been just their luck if a slip had resulted in Cabrera taking a line drive directly off his head. It was the fifth inning, when Mets’ rookie Carson Benge squared up a 95mph changeup and singled sharply to center field.

On that 2-2 pitch, Cabrera lost his balance and fell to a knee on the left side of the mound. The line drive off Benge’s bat came within inches of what would have been a horrific scene at Wrigley Field, as Cabrera narrowly escaped a disaster.

That was way too close for comfort. This came on the same day that the Cubs announced Cade Horton’s timetable to return from Tommy John surgery and about an hour before first pitch closer Daniel Palencia was placed on the injured list with an oblique strain.

The Cubs traded for Cabrera in the offseason not only because they believe in his talent, long-term projection, and his relatively cost-effective value, but also because they needed more capable arms in the rotation. Injuries happen every year, but it’s gotten out of hand already in April for the Cubs, who have 12 pitchers from their 40-man roster currently on the injured list, and 32 total pitchers in the organization sidelined with an injury.

So yeah, unlucky how that ball was hit right back at Cabrera, who slipped, and lucky that it missed him.

The 28-year-old righty wasn’t at his best in windy conditions, but Cabrera settled in after the Mets scored three runs in the second inning. Cabrera did give up eight hits in six innings, but he only walked a pair and got help from his defense to avoid any further damage.

An underrated moment came in the second inning, when Tyrone Taylor hit a ball to the left-center field gap, driving in two runs. That cut New York’s deficit to 4-3 at a time when they were crushing Cabrera. Five of the first seven balls in play against Cabrera had an exit velocity above 105mph, including Taylor’s two-run hit. However, thanks to Pete Crow-Armstrong’s defense, Taylor was thrown out at second base for the second out of the inning.

Tyrone Taylor singles on a sharp line drive to center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. MJ Melendez scores. Marcus Semien scores. Tyrone Taylor out at 2nd on the throw, center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong to second baseman Nico Hoerner. pic.twitter.com/82lJqinOkM

— Cubs Highlights (@Cubs_Highlights) April 17, 2026

So, instead of the Mets having a runner at second with one, the bases were empty with two outs, and Cabrera was able to get out of the inning without giving up more runs.

The Cubs’ offense gave Cabrera plenty of run support as Moises Ballesteros, Nico Hoerner, and Ian Happ all homered.

The Chicago Cubs have a little problem, and by little, I mean they’re teetering on a catastrophe. Before Friday’s series opener against the New York Mets at Wrigley Field, right-handed pitcher Daniel Palencia was placed on the 15-day injured list. This isn’t a short-term injury either, as the Cubs will be without their closer for a while while Palencia deals with a left oblique strain.

It’s one of those types of injuries that don’t necessarily have a fixed timetable, and even if it did, oblique strains tend to nag and stick around longer than you’d like. Plus, a pitcher is much more susceptible to a setback like the one Javier Assad had in 2025.

Injuries are part of the game, and pitchers are especially going down at a higher rate than ever before, but this is getting ridiculous for the Cubs. Not only are the Cubs going to be without their closer, but the team has also already lost veteran set-up man Phil Maton and their other premium free agent reliever, Hunter Harvey, who are both on the injured list as well.

Injuries to Matthew Boyd and Cade Horton have also exhausted the organization’s pitching depth through the first four weeks of the season, forcing the team to move Colin Rea from the bullpen to the rotation. Meanwhile, Javier Assad has filled in the rotation, when he probably would have been in the bullpen right now because of the other injuries.

We are now talking about 32 pitchers in the Cubs organization who are on the injured list. Because of the enormous number of injuries all happening at once, the Cubs currently have one healthy pitcher remaining on the 40-man roster who isn’t already on the active squad, and that’s left-hander Charlie Barnes, who was called up earlier this week. Barnes pitched three innings in Monday’s 13-7 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies and was then optioned back to Triple-A the following day.

Despite pitching injuries, the Cubs have actually had strong performances from their starting rotation, helping keep the team afloat. There’s really only been one bad blowup recently, and that came in Monday’s loss as Assad had to wear it against the Phillies and was charged with nine earned runs. The reason he stayed in was that the Cubs were already short-handed in the bullpen.

With all these injuries, you have to believe some finger-pointing is happening within the organization. At the very least, leadership has to review the process from the training staff up to the coaching staff because a month in, the Cubs are in bad shape health-wise.

OK, well, this sucks even more than we thought it would. Cade Horton finally had his season-ending elbow surgery earlier this week, and on Friday, Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell revealed the pitcher’s recovery timeline. Fans knew it was going to be at least a year, but right now it sounds like the best-case scenario for Horton’s return is after the 2027 All-Star break.

Prior to the team’s series opener against the New York Mets, Counsell said Horton’s expected recovery will last 15-16 months. That’s tough to hear because you’ll normally see some wiggle room for a potential year-long timetable. Not this time around, and it is a longer recovery period than Justin Steele, who also had UCL revision surgery in 2025, and if he returns by early June, it would be a 14-month gap between MLB appearances.

Horton previously had Tommy John surgery when he was in college, and this procedure was officially his second Tommy John surgery.

A crushing blow for Horton and the Cubs, who were hoping for a better outcome and a shorter recovery. Now, all that’s left to do is hope for no setbacks and that Horton can return at some point in 2027.

In his rookie season, Horton posted a 2.67 ERA in 118 innings and finished runner-up in National League Rookie of the Year voting. The right-handed starting pitcher has, unfortunately, dealt with previous injuries. As noted above, he had his first Tommy John surgery in 2021. The Cubs selected him in the first round, No. 7 overall in the 2022 MLB Draft, and they were extremely cautious with Horton, who didn’t make his pro debut until 2023. Even then, Horton was limited to 88.1 innings in 21 starts.

Horton made the jump from Double-A to Triple-A in 2024, but he missed the majority of the year after suffering a shoulder injury in late May and then had a setback in August that shut him down for good.

The Cubs probably didn’t want to lean on Horton as much as they did in 2025, but with a series of injuries to the pitching staff, including injuries to depth options in the minors, Horton was called up in May and remained with the team for the rest of the year. He turned into the team’s best starter and one of the best in MLB in the second half, but a freak injury in September took him out of the playoffs. Horton was placed on the injured list in the final week of the season with a rib fracture resulting from severe coughing.

Kind of makes you think what the Cubs will plan in the offseason.

Chicago Cubs prospect Kevin Alcántara has been crushing the ball at Triple-A to begin the 2026 season, which has fans drooling at the mouth over the potential of the outfielder coming back up to the big leagues. The offense has snapped out of its funk, but the outfield group hasn’t exactly lit up the world at the plate. So, when you see highlights of the top outfield prospect hitting seven home runs in two weeks’ worth of games, you get excited, you want to see the Cubs calling up Alcántara.

Yet, what you probably won’t see is that the 23-year-old hitter is batting .232 with a .317 OBP through 63 plate appearances, and while batting average isn’t exactly the concerning part, Alcántara’s high strikeout rate definitely is. So, although Alcántara has seven home runs, including a multi-homer game on Wednesday, he also leads the Iowa Cubs with 24 strikeouts.

This week is the perfect example of the boom-or-bust nature of Alcántara’s season so far. In two games, he’s 2-for-10, with a pair of home runs and six strikeouts. Among the 225 qualified hitters at Triple-A, Alcántara’s 38.1 K% ranks ninth-highest.

To be clear, this isn’t to discount the success that Alcántara has had so far this year. He’s been a notoriously slow starter throughout his minor league career, and while he obviously has raw power, the right-handed hitter’s high-water mark in home runs has been 17. So, seven home runs in his first 14 games is a big deal.

But let’s slow down. Alcántara can succeed and continue to develop at Triple-A because he obviously needs to improve his plate discipline.

Kevin Alcántara K% (MiLB Career)
2019: 41 Games, 174 Plate Appearances, 20.7 K% (Rookie Ball)
2021: 34 Games, 138 Plate Appearances, 26.1 K% (Complex League)
2022: 112 Games, 495 Plate Appearances, 24.8 K% (Single-A)
2023: 102 Games, 435 Plate Appearances, 24.1 K% (A+, Double-A)
2024: 111 Games, 473 Plate Appearances, 26.0 K% (Double-A, Triple-A)
2025: 102 Games, 430 Plate Appearances, 29.8 K% (Triple-A)

I do understand how fans can get a little worked up when you hear so much about prospects for multiple years, and the first instinct when guys on the major league roster is to demand a call-up. Alcántara has been on Cubs fans’ radar since 2021, when Anthony Rizzo was traded to the New York Yankees for the teenage prospect. Heading into 2023, Alcántara was on multiple top-100 prospect lists, so there’s no denying he’s been hyped up for a while.

But again, he is only 23-years-old, and while there are guys scattered around the league who are the same age or younger, that’s still relatively young. There is nothing wrong with the Cubs continuing to keep Alcántara at Triple-A, where he can play every day and hopefully make the proper adjustments at the plate.

I love Nico Hoerner; you love him, everyone loves him, but we’ve seen him go on crazy runs at the plate in the past, and he’s been trending in a positive direction at the plate for years. He’s now establishing himself as the heartbeat of the team from the leadoff spot, and he’ll get his roses. But right now, the best storyline by far is the resurgence of Shōta Imanaga.

We’re talking about a guy who instantly became a fan-favorite in 2024, backed it up with an All-Star appearance, but by the end of the 2025 season, the Cubs didn’t trust him in the biggest game of the year. There were serious questions whether or not Imanaga would return as the Cubs declined to pick up his option, and ultimately waited to see if he would accept the qualifying offer.

The left-handed pitcher did, and some fans groaned at the decision, given Imanaga’s decline in 2025. However, as much as injuries are sometimes written off as excuses, it really does appear that Imanaga’s hamstring strain screwed up his second season with the Cubs, because not only is he pitching great again, but he’s looking better than ever.

In Wednesday’s series finale against the Philadelphia Phillies, Imanaga struck out 11 batters and generated 26 swings and misses, the most whiffs from a pitcher in a single game so far in 2026. Through four starts, Imanaga leads all qualified starting pitchers with a 37.8 K%.

The home runs will happen, as Trea Turner greeted Imanaga with a leadoff home run on Wednesday, but Imanaga is once again showing what made him special in 2024. He’s missing bats, not walking guys, and he has regained the ability to make batters chase pitches.

Let’s compare his numbers so far in 2026 to his first year in 2024, when he was an All-Star, and in 2025, when Imanaga regressed after the hamstring injury.

2024: 34.8 chase %, 28.3 whiff %, 25.1 K%, 91.9mph fastball velocity
2025: 31.6 chase %, 24.6 whiff %, 20.6 K%, 90.8mph fastball velocity
2026: 42.4 chase %, 33.8 whiff %, 37.8 K%, 92.2mph fastball velocity

Yeah, Shōta is back.

And back to the original point. Imanaga being this good so far AND the way he’s been good should project to ongoing success in 2026, which is a huge deal for the Cubs after losing Cade Horton for the season. This version of Imanaga is 100% a go-to starting pitcher in the playoffs, which very few fans had faith in happening after how he looked at the end of last season.