SAN DIEGO — The Chicago Cubs are being cautious with left-handed pitcher Justin Steele after an MRI revealed a mild forearm strain, not planning beyond Saturday’s scheduled throwing session at Petco Park. Cubs manager David Ross used phrases like “read and react,” “wait and see” and “holding pattern” to describe the situation involving one of the team’s most valuable players.
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“We probably got the best outcome we could have hoped for,” Ross said before Friday’s game against the San Diego Padres. “We’re holding back to see how he feels before we make any kind of long-term decisions.”
Entering the weekend, Steele ranked third among qualified National League pitchers in ERA (2.65), trailing only Atlanta’s Bryce Elder (1.92) and teammate Marcus Stroman (2.59). Steele has also been a top-five NL pitcher in terms of WAR (2.0), per FanGraphs. Steele has excelled at getting groundballs (48.4 percent), limiting hard contact (18.1 percent) better than anyone else in the NL, and continuing his evolution into a top-of-the-rotation starter.
Steele threw three perfect innings against the Tampa Bay Rays — the best team in baseball — before the Cubs pulled him from Wednesday’s start at Wrigley Field for further evaluation.
“It just kind of confirmed where we were at,” Steele said. “We still feel like it was a good decision to get me out of the game before we went out there and made things worse. It was really good news to hear that it was just a mild strain of the muscle. That’s what we wanted to hear.”
It has been almost six full years since Steele underwent Tommy John surgery. He has already thrown 68 innings this season, which is more than halfway toward last year’s output (119 innings). He made 24 starts last season (3.18 ERA) but did not pitch in September as the Cubs shut him down with a low back strain. He will turn 28 next month.
It’s extremely difficult to replace a starting pitcher at the top of his game for an extended stretch of games. But if Steele only misses a start or winds up with a minimum stay on the injured list, the Cubs can cover some of those innings with Hayden Wesneski and/or Javier Assad, two swingmen who represent better pitching depth than the team had in recent years.
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“That’s the position you really want to be in as an organization,” Steele said. “When something happens, you feel really confident in the guy you’re bringing up right after him. I feel like that’s the situation we’re in with people like Wesneski, Assad and whoever else it may be. There’s a ton of guys we feel confident in and comfortable with.”
(Photo of Justin Steele: Matt Marton / USA Today)