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.”
