Although I did not agree with the handwringing about Justin Steele returning from the Injured List to make a couple starts in a lost season, I at least understood very broadly where people were coming from. Steele, a critically-important player for the Cubs, was on the shelf with an elbow injury. Elbows are scary. Sometimes they pop. Many years ago, Steele’s did. Pitching is dangerous. Pitching while injured, even more so.
But Steele was healthy. The tendinitis in his elbow had abated, he was symptom-free, and he wanted to know how he would respond to coming back. He wanted to add to his innings total for the season. And the Cubs wanted those things for him. It was all completely reasonable, then, for him to come back and make a couple abbreviated appearance before the offseason.
Thankfully, he did so without any physical issues, including last night’s successful outing against the Phillies, and now he will indeed enter the offseason knowing for sure that his elbow is fine.
“I would say the main thing I’ve learned is that I’m capable of coming back pretty quickly from [injuries] and still going out there and throwing competitive innings,” Steele said, per the Sun-Times. “Even as the season’s winding down, still going out there, competing . . . showing them I’m healthy. For me, it just proves a lot to myself.”
Previous to the elbow injury, which cost him about three weeks, Steele had a strained hamstring earlier this season, sustained when fielding a ball on Opening Day. That one cost him more than a month.
Owing to the injuries, it probably wasn’t exactly the season Justin Steele envisioned. But in the 134.2 innings he was able to pitch, he was every bit as good as he has been three years running now: 3.07 ERA (24% better than league average), 3.23 FIP (19% better), 24.3% K, 6.7% BB, 4.2% barrel, 32.7% hard hit, 44.8% groundball, 3.0 WAR.
Justin Steele may not do it as flashily as some of the biggest names in the sport, but when he’s on the mound, he is as likely to give you a great start as almost any pitcher in the game. The fact that you know some shape of a fastball or slider is coming, AND you’ve known it for three years, but you STILL can’t do what you want to do? His execution is clearly elite.
Steele, 29, will head into the offseason for his second go at arbitration, getting a healthy raise on his $4.0 million salary from 2024. He was a Super Two, so he gets four cracks at arbitration. He can’t reach free agency until after the 2027 season, so the Cubs have him for three more seasons – year-to-year if they want.
