MLB injury check-in: How will teams navigate injuries to Cade Horton, Hunter Brown, Mookie Betts and others?

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For a handful of MLB clubs, the start of the regular season has already been soured by injuries to key players. These ailments range in severity — some absences are expected to extend a few weeks, while others could stretch for the remainder of the season — but what’s undeniable is that several of the most important players in the sport have already landed on the injured list just as the season is getting going.

Here’s a look at the five most prominent injured stars, their timelines for return and which players will need to step up while their teammates are on the shelf.

Astros RHP Hunter Brown

A fifth-round pick out of Division II Wayne State in 2019, Brown has gradually grown into one of the best right-handed pitchers in the game. His third-place finish in the AL Cy Young race last year exemplified that growth, and with longtime Astros rotation mainstay Framber Valdez departing in free agency, there was zero doubt entering this season who the ace of the Astros’ staff would be. But after just two starts in which Brown largely looked like his dominant self, he landed on the injured list for the first time in his career due to a Grade 2 shoulder strain, which is expected to keep him on the shelf for several weeks at least. This is a devastating blow for an Astros team that spent much of last season navigating a slew of arm injuries to pitchers not named Brown and Valdez, who each made 31 starts.

Houston spent the offseason restocking its staff around Brown, but the biggest names brought in have delivered mixed results so far, with Tatsuya Imai starting to flash his impact potential while Mike Burrows has been just OK. The more familiar faces have also provided varying results, with the long-tenured Lance McCullers Jr. seemingly having reinvented himself for the better after a disastrous 2025 while Cristian Javier is struggling badly in the early going. Beyond those four, the door would seem to be open for Spencer Arrighetti – who thrived as a rookie in 2024 but was a relative nonfactor last season due to poor performance and injury – to reemerge as a rotation option, and there are some long-relief types who could handle bulk innings as well (Ryan Weiss, Cody Bolton, AJ Blubaugh).

All of these pitchers will need to step up their game in Brown’s absence, especially with a bullpen that has underperformed while closer Josh Hader works his way back from his own ailment; Bryan Abreu’s brutal showings thus far have been particularly concerning. The Astros have done an excellent job in recent years of conjuring effective pitching staffs regardless of the personnel involved, but Brown’s absence will really put that core competency to the test.

The Astros announced that Brown will refrain from throwing for a few weeks, at which point he will likely require a build back up before he’s available for major-league games. That’s assuming no setbacks in the interim, which is hardly a safe assumption for a pitcher battling a serious injury for the first time in his career. A late May or early June return seems plausible given the information we have now, but that’s a long time for a team to go without one of the best pitchers in the league. Fortunately for Houston, the AL West does not currently seem to have any team eager to zoom ahead in the standings, so if the Astros’ stellar offense can continue to mash, they should be able to stay in the mix until their ace is reinstalled atop the rotation.

Mets OF Juan Soto

For the first time since a left shoulder strain cost him a couple of weeks early in the 2021 season, Soto has landed on the injured list. This time it’s a right calf strain suffered while running the bases during the Mets’ game April 3 in San Francisco. The team announced an expected return timeline of roughly two-to-three weeks, so this injury isn’t nearly as troubling as some of the others highlighted here. Even so, any absence for a player of Soto’s status is significant, especially considering how rare they’ve been throughout his career. In addition to his generational hitting ability, Soto has been tremendously durable as a big leaguer. He ranks sixth in games played since the beginning of the 2019 season, and only ironman Matt Olson (486) played more regular-season games the past three years (2023-2025) than Soto (479). Availability might not be Soto’s best ability, but it’s unquestionably part of what makes him so valuable.

But now, at least for a stretch, Soto will not be slotted near the top of the Mets’ lineup. Manager Carlos Mendoza has thus far moved the heart of the order up a spot, with Bo Bichette, Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr. occupying the 2-3-4 spots behind leadoff man Francisco Lindor, as opposed to 3-4-5 behind Soto. Having switch-hitters in Lindor and Polanco ensures a baseline of lineup balance no matter what, but it’ll be interesting to see if Mendoza experiments with any other configurations while Soto is out.

As for the defensive alignment, joining Soto in the outfield this season have been a pair of fresh faces in offseason acquisition Luis Robert Jr. and rookie Carson Benge, but Soto’s temporary absence will open some more outfield opportunities for Brett Baty, who was previously on the outside looking in at a crowded infield picture. The left-handed-hitting Baty looks like the natural temporary replacement for Soto in one of the corner outfield spots alongside Benge, but Benge has struggled since homering in his debut, so perhaps Mendoza will seek at-bats for some of the other non-regulars on the roster, such as Jared Young, Mark Vientos and Tyrone Taylor. That group also includes the polarizing yet talented Ronny Mauricio, who was the corresponding move for Soto’s IL placement and delivered a walk-off hit in his first at-bat of the season on Tuesday.

Assuming Soto’s absence is indeed rather brief, this should be an early-season blip of unusual lineup construction. That said, his impact is so outsized that it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Mets’ new-look offense take some time to figure out its identity without Soto anchoring the top of the order. Seeing Soto stuck watching from the bench, if even for a couple of weeks, will feel unfamiliar. At the same time, this is a golden opportunity for some of the new names to endear themselves to the fan base with a step up in performance while Soto is out.

Cubs RHP Cade Horton

The runner-up to Drake Baldwin in last year’s NL Rookie of the Year race, Horton appeared primed to build on his stellar debut season and solidify himself as a fixture in the Cubs’ rotation for years to come. Instead, he departed his April 3 start in Cleveland due to forearm discomfort and shortly thereafter received a recommendation for elbow surgery — the second such procedure of his young career after he underwent Tommy John surgery in college. The Cubs received an additional wave of bad news earlier this week, with All-Star lefty Matthew Boyd being placed on the injured list due to a strained biceps, but it’s Horton’s injury — which is expected to wipe out the rest of his season — that is particularly gutting and daunting to deal with in both the short and long term.

It was about a year ago that another frontline Cubs arm, Justin Steele, went down with an elbow injury that required surgery. In that way, Horton’s early exit from the rotation is an unwelcome case of deja vu, and now Steele’s impending return to the rotation this summer becomes all the more pivotal for Chicago. That’s still at least a month away, though, which means the spotlight brightens on the likes of Shota Imanaga and new addition Edward Cabrera to be the anchors atop this rotation in the meantime. Cabrera has looked terrific to start the season, allowing just two hits across 11 ⅔ scoreless innings and showcasing why the Cubs were willing to pay a reasonably steep price to snag him from Miami in the offseason. The talent has rarely been in question with Cabrera, but now there’s even more pressure on his durability — which has frequently been a concern — to hold up while other key arms are on the shelf.

Besides the hard-throwing Jaxon Wiggins, who could use some more development time in Triple-A, the Cubs do not have a wealth of MLB-ready pitching prospects to call on, so it’ll be on veterans Jameson Taillon, Javier Assad and Colin Rea to steady the ship after Imanaga and Cabrera. And however the pitching staff shakes out, it’ll be even more important for the Cubs to start hitting consistently, as an offense that was supposed to be the team’s clear strength has yet to really start humming.

Blue Jays C Alejandro Kirk

The reigning American League champions’ injured list is as crowded as that of any team in the league through two weeks, but arguably the most consequential absence that Toronto is currently navigating is Kirk, who is expected to miss six weeks after fracturing his left thumb and undergoing surgery. It’s impossible to overstate the value of a franchise catcher capable of impacting both sides of the ball, and that key cog in Kirk will be unavailable for the next month-plus while the Blue Jays try to dig themselves out of an early, ugly hole in the unforgiving AL East.

Kirk has been a mainstay behind the dish for the past half-decade for Toronto, ranking ninth in MLB in innings caught and fifth in fWAR among catchers since the start of the 2022 season. That makes him particularly challenging to replace, in terms of both how his defensive acumen impacts the pitching staff and his role in the middle of the lineup as a well-above-average bat for his position.

The two tasked with filling in for the two-time All-Star catcher will be Tyler Heineman and Brandon Valenzuela. The 34-year-old Heineman is a strong defender who reached base at a solid clip (.361 OBP) in a small sample (174 plate appearances) last season, but he has generally been limited to backup roles and offers essentially zero slugging upside. Valenzuela is a 25-year-old rookie who was acquired in a trade with San Diego last season, and he has long been known more for his glove than his bat. Both Heineman and Valenzuela are switch-hitters, affording some matchup flexibility for manager John Schneider.

But far more crucial will be how they manage Toronto’s injury-ravaged yet still talented pitching staff while Kirk is out. Ensuring a sense of stability with the glove will be paramount. Any offensive contributions from these backup backstops will be gravy, while the other hitters atop the order will be relied on far more heavily to compensate for Kirk’s absence.

Dodgers SS Mookie Betts

The defending champs are off to a rip-roaring start to their quest for a three-peat, with only one glaring setback surfacing in the early going: Mookie Betts, the eight-time All-Star and sudden defensive stalwart at shortstop, suffered a right oblique strain. Return to play for such an injury commonly requires four-to-six weeks, but Betts and manager Dave Roberts are hopeful that he can return on the earlier side of that timeline.

Any team losing its starting shortstop would be a big deal, but this is a particularly intriguing case considering that the middle infield — or at least, second base before Betts’ injury — is arguably the only weak spot on the entire Dodgers roster. With Betts out, a group of unproven youngsters (Alex Freeland, Hyeseong Kim) and veteran utilitymen (Miguel Rojas, Santiago Espinal) will be tasked with covering both shortstop and second base, representing a clear collective shortcoming in a position-player group otherwise overloaded with impact talent.

Viewed more favorably, the presence of all that star power elsewhere in the lineup should empower this group of middle infielders to make the most of their increase in playing time without the pressure of needing to replace Betts; there are plenty of other megastars to shoulder that burden in the interim. So whether it means a prospect such as Freeland breaking through as a regular or someone such as Kim establishing himself as a proven commodity or the veterans Espinal and Rojas showing they still can play meaningful every-day roles, Betts’ absence could be a silver lining for other Dodgers to take advantage of.

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