As the Cubs got ready to welcome the New York Yankees into Wrigley Field, there was a familiar face throwing in the outfield grass.
Justin Steele threw off flat ground Friday morning, getting up to “80-85 throws”, he said.
The former Cy Young candidate has been out the entire season after undergoing an internal brace surgery in April of 2025. Steele was on his way back to the big leagues when he suffered a setback earlier this spring and had to pause his recovery.
The Cubs don’t have a timetable on when they’ll get Steele back on the big-league pitching staff, but his recovery is entering a critical stage.
He plans to throw more on flat ground Saturday and then get off a mound for around 20 pitches.
“When we had the setback, we were really close to getting back,” Steele said Friday morning in the Cubs clubhouse. “At that point, we were built up to three innings, so I was really close to the light at the end of the tunnel. So the setback obviously sucked.
“But yeah, I would say we’re getting really close at this point. We don’t have to do the building up process. Once we get to [live BPs], I don’t have to get stretched out to three innings. So that’s something that won’t take as long.”
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The Cubs have already said Steele would not start and would instead be utilized out of the bullpen if — or when — he returns this season.
So as he said, he doesn’t need to go through the process of building up to a full starter’s workload.
The Cubs will take Steele back any way they can get him. The southpaw was one of the most reliable starters in the NL from 2022-24, posting a 3.10 ERA and 1.20 WHIP across 78 games. He finished fifth in Cy Young voting in 2023.
There is some encouraging precedent for Steele pitching out of the bullpen — where he began his big-league career. He made 11 appearances as a reliever in 2021 with a 2.03 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 21 strikeouts in 13.1 innings.
There is still plenty of uncertainty, of course. Steele has missed a year-and-a-half and the Cubs want to be careful with an important pitcher who has already suffered one setback this season.
The Cubs also don’t have any guarantees with right-hander Ben Brown, who is recovering from a serious neck injury (his second such injury in the last three seasons). Like Steele, Brown is at Wrigley Field this weekend and the two have been supporting each other (alongside Cade Horton) at the Cubs complex in Arizona throughout the recovery process.
Friday also represented a big day for a pair of injured pitchers the Cubs are definitely counting on to produce down the stretch.
Starter Edward Cabrera (hamstring) is pitching for Triple-A Iowa in what is his first of likely three rehab outings. Reliever Daniel Palencia is among the injured players at Wrigley Field this weekend and is slated to throw a live BP session Saturday against Cubs hitters.
The next step for Palencia would be going on a rehab assignment and he is closing in on a return to the big-league bullpen.
“We’ve got plenty of runway in the season left,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “He, frankly, hasn’t pitched much this year. If anything, I wish he would’ve pitched a little more because he just hasn’t pitched much. But we’ll have to get him there and we have some time to do that.”
This is Palencia’s second stint on the IL this season and has appeared in just 19 games. He emerged as the closer early last year, saving 22 games before missing a good chunk of September with a shoulder strain.
Palencia’s return would be a major boost for a Cubs bullpen that suffered yet another injury Friday when Gavin Hollowell landed on the IL with shoulder inflammation. Chicago native Antoine Kelly was recalled from Triple-A and the left-hander is set to make his MLB debut at some point in the coming days.
The Cubs are hopeful it won’t be a long stay on the IL for Hollowell, who has emerged as a quality option out of the bullpen in recent weeks (0.90 ERA in 10 games since late-June).
Hollowell and Palencia are just two of the 13 different pitchers who have recorded a save for the Cubs this season. Jacob Webb (five saves, 2.64 ERA) has been an ultra-valuable mainstay in the bullpen, but the Cubs could certainly use some more firepower at the back end of games.
Imagine a world where Counsell could call on Palencia, Steele or Brown out of the bullpen alongside Webb, Ryan Rolison and others late in the season or in the playoffs.
The Cubs will very likely add to that relief group before Monday’s trade deadline, as well. Last season, they acquired veterans Andrew Kittredge and Taylor Rogers ahead of the deadline and the bullpen proved to be a major strength of the team down the stretch and in October.
It has been a difficult season for the Cubs with the shocking number of pitching injuries. But they entered Friday with the fifth-best record in baseball and riding a rotation that allowed just four runs in 23 innings during the four-game series in St. Louis.
Whether Jed Hoyer’s front office takes some big swings at the deadline remains to be seen, but the Cubs also hope the internal reinforcements will provide a lift.
“It’s exciting,” Steele said. “Ben and I have talked about it. We want to be able to come back at the end of the season and really provide some impactful help in the bullpen or wherever the case may be. It’s an exciting group. We’ve got an opportunity in front of us.”
