A bullpen upgrade may be coming to the Chicago Bulls at the eleventh hour.
Justin Steele continues to progress in the minors, with his latest rehab start proving to be his best yet. The former Cubs ace has been sidelined since April of 2025 due to left elbow surgery. The recovery process has been far from speedy, but Steele has seemingly hit his stride over the last couple of weeks.
In his four rehab outings thus far, Steele has a 4.70 ERA with 11 strikeouts. It's undoubtedly a small sample size, but Steele has essentially looked better and better each time on the bump. And this latest start was easily his best yet.
Steele went 2.0 innings against Omaha without a single run or hit allowed. Even more encouraging, he struck out five of the seven batters he faced and threw just 33 total pitches. Steele was attacking all over the zone, looking extremely comfortable and drawing some big whiffs.
Apr 7, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs pitcher Justin Steele (35) delivers against the Texas Rangers during the first inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
It's fitting that Friday night was Justin Steele's best rehab appearance yet ... because it was also his last. The Cubs will now have to make a decision on what they want to do with the 31-year-old for the rest of the season. Did they see enough to give him the call and make him a part of this postseason push? Will they err on the side of caution?
For what it's worth, we have already seen them do the latter with Shelby Miller . Another pitcher coming off Tommy John Surgery, Miller was also looking quite good during his time with the Triple-A squad. He was consistently touching the high-90s, flashing the kind of velocity that felt like it could be a difference-maker for this struggling bullpen down the stretch.
Nevertheless, the Cubs opted for the more responsible move and shut Miller down for the remainder of the year. Might that be a sign that they will do the same with Steele?
As good as Steele looks, he has thrown a total of 7.2 innings since September 2. The workload has been incredibly small. Now, the expectation is that he will only come up to work in a bullpen role, meaning Craig Counsell could manage his innings more carefully. But we're still talking about a potentially drastic change in responsibility.
The last thing you want is for Steele to join the big-league roster, ramp up quickly, and face another setback. Especially with how open-ended this rotation is in the future, the smart move may be to punt things and start 2027 with him back in a starting role.
At the same time, the Cubs are in a pretty desperate situation. The Wild Card race has become incredibly close, and they are struggling to hold onto the home-field advantage. Not to mention, based on what we've seen from this bullpen lately, it's hard to imagine they have enough to go on a deep playoff run. We all know Steele is good enough to be a genuinely impactful arm.
With that in mind, the Cubs have a huge decision ahead of them. Let's see just how aggressive they want to be.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/cubs/onsi as Cubs' Decision on Justin Steele Looms After Best Rehab Appearance Yet .
