On his way home from the OU baseball facilities Wednesday evening, Skip Johnson’s phone buzzed. On the other line was a pitching pupil and one of the Chicago Cubs’ top prospects in Cade Horton, a leader from OU's 2022 College World Series runner-up squad.

Cade Horton is slated to make his long-awaited MLB debut for the Chicago Cubs sometime in Saturday's game against the New York Mets. He won't be starting like most Cubs fans expected, but he is likely going to pitch at some point.

Cade Horton knew pretty quickly something was up. Triple-A Iowa pitching coach Tony Cougoule summoned Horton from his Toledo, Ohio, hotel room to head up to manager Marty Pevey’s room because he had been named the league’s pitcher of the month.