Justin Steele’s comeback from injury reached another checkpoint in Arizona, where he was scheduled to throw live batting practice on Tuesday and Friday as he keeps working back for the Chicago Cubs this season. Steele expects to pitch this year, but the club is still treating every step as part of a longer rebuild after major surgery on his left elbow in April 2025 and a flexor strain earlier this season.
That is why the search around Steele is focused on what comes next, not just on whether he wants back. If those live sessions go smoothly, a minor-league rehab assignment could follow shortly afterward, and that would be the first real test of whether his arm is ready for game speed again. Steele, who was greeted by teammates at Chase Field before the Chicago Cubs’ 7-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, said it has been a long road and that it feels really good to get toward the end of that tunnel.
He said the team is playing well and he wants to get back and help, and he has been pushing the envelope in trying to return as fast as possible. Steele also said that after his April 2025 surgery, the feel was already there when he started playing catch again. There was no adjustment period for getting the ball to cut, sink or spin sliders, and he said it felt like the same arm, not a new one.
Craig Counsell, though, drew the line where the Cubs have drawn it all along. He said the club needs to get Steele pitching in games first and that it is not going to skip steps. Counsell noted that Steele has not pitched in an affiliated game in almost two years, and he said the Cubs can understand that Steele will need to pitch in multiple games before he is ready to return for good.
That caution matters because Steele is not just any arm waiting in the wings. He broke into the majors as a reliever, became an All-Star in 2023 and finished fifth in the National League Cy Young Award voting that season. But after so much time away, the Cubs are making him prove the arm, the command and the recovery all over again before they hand him a place back in the rotation. For now, Tuesday and Friday are the dates that matter most, because they will tell the Cubs whether the next step is rehab games or another wait.
