Cade Horton wasn’t afraid to give props to Jordan Wicks — but he wasn’t going to do so without making sure the lefty caught a stray jab.

“He does cook a good burger,” Horton said earlier in camp. “I think he gets it from being the manager of Dairy Queen when he was in high school.”

When asked for a compliment for Horton, Wicks had some sly remarks for the fellow former 1st round pick.

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“He sets the table,” Wicks said with a laugh. “He actually grilled his own steaks one day. I wasn’t there.”

The pair have a close friendship that goes beyond their mutual draft status as former 1st-round picks. The duo formed a bond last summer at a time when it could have been easy to feel alone and frustrated.

Both promising pitchers for the Cubs suffered serious injuries that required them to go back to the Cubs’ facility in Mesa, Ariz. during the season. Rehabbing there can be a lonely process for a player.

They’re away from the team, working on their own trying to race to get back.

Luckily, for Wicks and Horton, the pair had one another by their side through the journey.

“I think it definitely made the rehab process a little bit easier having someone else that was kind of going through the same thing instead of just being out here alone, by yourself,” Wicks, the Cubs’ 2021 1st-round pick, said. “It was definitely nice to have someone else out here.”

Horton and Wicks first struck up their friendship in spring training in 2023. The pair were “Big 12 guys” as Horton called it — he had gone to Oklahoma and Wicks played at Kansas State. That spring, they decided to take a trip to Chase Field in downtown Phoenix to watch the U.S. play Canada in the World Baseball Classic.

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“Our wives really hit it off and they started hanging out in spring training,” Wicks said.

The next year, the bond was so close the four of them got together to split a house for spring training. It was looking to be a promising year for the duo. Wicks had made the team’s Opening Day rotation and Horton looked primed to make his major-league debut and play a factor for a team with playoff aspirations.

None of that ever transpired.

Horton suffered a subscapularis strain in his shoulder that ended his season after posting a 7.50 ERA in 5 starts at Iowa. Wicks dealt with oblique injuries and made just 11 appearances (10 starts) in the majors with a 5.48 ERA. The Cubs, meanwhile, finished with another 83-win, playoff-less season.

“I think it was especially frustrating for him given — I think the way he kind of looked at is — if he had stayed healthy, he had a shot to debut last year,” Wicks said. “Which I definitely think is possible, but I also think he learned a lot coming off of that experience and a lot of things coming into this year as far as his routine and the changes to make for it, and stuff like that.”

That’s what made this spring so valuable for Horton. It was his first big-league camp, and he was able to pick the brains of veterans who had been around the block and achieved what he hopes to one day do.

“I think [Jameson Taillon] has been a really big help,” Horton, the Cubs’ 2022 1st-round pick, said. “I like picking Steele’s brain. We have a lot of vets here and it’s been good to work with them and pick their mind.”

Wicks has noticed subtle changes in Horton’s day-to-day routine that have come both because of his desire to be healthier and from being around veteran players. It’s like the adjustments Wicks has learned to make in his pro career.

That, they hope can lead them to being key contributors for the Cubs in 2025. That bond formed in the Arizona heat last summer has helped spark that desire and belief.

“It was good just having somebody there that’s going to push me every day,” Horton said. “And I think iron sharpens iron. So us being together, it was really good.

“I think we both improved significantly on our body and everything like that.”