Nico Hoerner spent a vast majority of 2024 far from 100% as he dealt with a pair of key injuries.

There was the public injury — a broken hand that he battled through all season. And then there was the quiet one — an elbow issue that required surgery on his flexor tendon in October to correct the problem.

“[The two injuries] definitely overlapped,” Hoerner acknowledged at Cubs camp in Arizona on Friday.

Now on the road to recovery, Hoerner is back on the field taking grounders and working through a throwing progression.

He has not yet thrown on the field.

“We’re still working towards that,” Hoerner said. “The throwing program has been going for a little while now. Making progress in that. Learning a ton.

“Definitely more detail in a throwing program than anything I’ve ever done before. I think it’ll definitely help me return to not just being healthy but a better thrower than I’ve been before, so I’m excited for that.”

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Hoerner said he has some input in the throwing program and the idea is to not only get back to full confidence on the field but being able to maintain it for a complete season of more than six months.

As for an exact timeline, Hoerner and the Cubs don’t know.

Their first regular season game is in just over a month — March 18 against the Dodgers in Tokyo.

“I don’t want to miss anything,” Hoerner said. “Japan — we’re going to talk about that a lot, obviously. But it’s kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing to play last year’s World Champions and be able to celebrate the Japanese players on our team and the place that they learned to love the game and play in front of some of the fans that love baseball.

“I feel like we’ve seen some just incredible players from Japan in recent years. Never been to Asia. Yeah, I want to go on that trip but I don’t know if I will. We’ll see. I hope so, but we’ll see.”

Despite the injuries last season, Hoerner still finished third on the Cubs in WAR (3.7) while hitting .273/.335/.373 (.708 OPS) with 7 homers, 86 runs scored and 31 stolen bases.

Hoerner is hoping to get back to the level he was at in 2023 when he won the Gold Glove at second base and put up 5.1 WAR while also leading the team with 98 runs and 43 stolen bases.

If he is unable to take part in the Tokyo Series next month, the Cubs have some options at second base.

Top prospect Matt Shaw looks to have a strong chance at winning the third base job in camp, though he is also dealing with an injury right now. He can play second base if needed as well.

Then there’s veteran utility player Jon Berti and Vidal Bruján, a former top prospect the Cubs acquired in a trade with the Marlins. Rule 5 pick Gage Workman has limited experience at second base in the minors (13 games) and the Cubs also have veteran Nicky Lopez, who is in camp on a minor-league deal.