Cade Michael Horton (born August 20, 2001) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

in the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

organization.

Amateur career

Horton grew up in

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma C ...

, and attended Norman High School, where he played baseball and football and was once the member of an exclusive Fantasy football league. Horton committed to play college baseball at Oklahoma and to join the school's football team as a walk-on. In his senior football season, he passed for 3,084 yards and 26 touchdowns with seven interceptions and also rushed for 1,149 yards and 15 touchdowns. Horton was named the Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year in baseball after batting .375 in five games before the season was canceled due to COVID-19. Horton tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow prior to the start of his freshman season, requiring him to undergo

Tommy John surgery Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, colloquially known as Tommy John surgery (TJS), is a surgical graft procedure where the ulnar collateral ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with either a tendon from elsewhere in the patient's bo ...

and

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

the year. He began his redshirt freshman season playing third base and occasionally pitching in relief while he was still recovering from his elbow surgery. Horton was later moved to the Sooners' starting rotation. He reached the Men's College World Series with the Sooners, where he started in two games. In the MCWS Finals game versus Ole Miss he registered a career high 13 strikeouts in 7.1 innings.

Professional career

Horton was selected in the first round with the seventh overall selection by the

of the

2022 Major League Baseball draft The 2022 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on July 17–19, 2022, in Los Angeles. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was based on the reverse order of the 2021 ...

. He signed with the team for $4.45 million.

References

External links

Oklahoma Sooners bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horton, Cade 2001 births Living people Baseball players from Oklahoma Baseball pitchers Oklahoma Sooners baseball players Sportspeople from Norman, Oklahoma Myrtle Beach Pelicans players South Bend Cubs players