Justin Steele returns to pitch before the Cubs' year ends

There obviously isn’t much time left in the season, and certainly, there’s too much room between the Chicago Cubs and the National League wild card contenders for Justin Steele to make too much of an impact.

Still, as he kept checking boxes and taking positive daily steps during his stint on the injured list with left elbow tendinitis, it was clear the team wasn’t going to hold him back from pitching again this season.

“I would say if he’s healthy, he’s going to pitch,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said Monday, “and all signs point to him being healthy.”

That was made official Wednesday when the team activated Steele from the 15-day IL. He’d last pitched Aug. 27, so he didn’t require a rehab assignment, but Counsell also noted that Steele wouldn’t be rushed back into regular work.

“This will be a short start,” Counsell said before Steele took the ball in the Cubs’ 5-3 loss to the Oakland A’s on Wednesday. “We’re going to cut it off at some point and reintroduce him here, and so, this will not be a normal start.”

True to his word, Counsell came out of the dugout with two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the third to take the ball. Steele had already thrown 57 pitches, and Counsell felt it was time to turn to the bullpen.

Having just dealt with an elbow injury that Steele said, when imaging was first done, was similar in feeling and location to an injury that put him on the shelf for two weeks in June 2023, there was some concern in the fanbase over the risk of re-injury. With the situation the Cubs are in — Wednesday’s loss officially gave the Milwaukee Brewers the NL Central crown, and the Cubs ended the day seven games back in the NL wild card standings with 10 games remaining — they could’ve decided to shut Steele down rather than have him pitch probably only two more times before the season finished.

But both Steele and the Cubs were confident when he first hit the IL that he would be fine to take the mound again. He had no desire to sit out the rest of the year.

Why was coming back and pitching again so important to him?

“I just kind of wanted to,” Steele said. “Been feeling healthy, been feeling good, especially as of late. Felt like we kind of tackled it head on, got me in a good spot pretty quickly, and I just wanted to pitch.”

Though the start was short and he didn’t make it out of the third inning, the main thing the Cubs were looking for was that Steele still felt good coming out of his outing. At least as of postgame Wednesday, that’s where he was at.

“It felt really good out there,” Steele said. “Felt good to be back out there feeling the jitters and stuff again. Main thing, felt healthy, felt really good out there.”

Again, the Cubs could’ve just shut him down for the last chunk of the year, but that wasn’t what Steele wanted to do as long as he felt healthy. There is a benefit to finishing the year, because that can give players the kind of peace of mind they want heading into the offseason.

This is now Steele’s fourth season in the majors. In his first full season as a starter in 2022, he didn’t even pitch in September due to a low back strain. He was healthy for most of last season outside of the June IL stint, but he did seem to slow down a bit toward the end of the year and fell just short of his stated goal of pitching at least 180 innings.

He won’t get there this year, either, and he won’t match the 30 starts he made for the Cubs last season. That was essentially guaranteed when he went down on Opening Day with a left hamstring strain and didn’t pitch again until May 6, and this break in September took another handful of starts away from him. So taking the opportunity to finish the season healthy and go into the offseason on a good note is something Steele wanted to do.

“Obviously, you want to be able to see him finish the year strong and healthy,” Dansby Swanson said. “He’s been putting in the work, obviously, to be able to come back and start today, and he’ll probably get another couple cracks at it”

Though it’s not quite over yet, Steele has had another strong season (outside of the injuries, of course).

Most of his numbers are right around those from his breakout 2023 season, and both his 3.03 ERA and 1.10 WHIP across his 23 starts would be career highs. As it was last season, every time Steele has taken the ball this year, it’s felt like this team would have a good chance to win that day.

Unfortunately, the team as a whole has disappointed, and after Wednesday’s game, FanGraphs had them at 0.0 percent odds to make the playoffs.

Regardless, Steele’s performance has provided even more confidence that he’ll continue to be a key arm for the Cubs moving forward.

“He’s a guy that you can count on,” Swanson said. “Just the ability to take the ball every fifth day. When he’s out there on the mound, you obviously feel like you have a really good chance to win. I’ve talked about it before, but just his competitive spirit and his mindset when he steps on the mound is fun to play behind.”

“He’s been Justin Steele,” Counsell said. “He’s been the guy he was last year. He’s established a track record of very good performance that we’ll certainly need moving forward.”