Cubs’ Steele eyes late-season return, but Counsell remains cautious

PHOENIX — Left-hander Justin Steele had this Cubs series in Arizona circled for a while.

Steele’s journey to get back to the Cubs following April 2025 elbow surgery hit a setback this spring when he suffered a flexor strain, significantly prolonging the rehab process.

Steele is around the team this week during the Cubs’ three-game series against the Diamondbacks as he moves closer to getting back into major-league action. He said he recovered well after his first live batting practice last week and has been playing catch every day since then without issue.

Steele is scheduled to throw live batting practice Tuesday and Friday at the team’s complex in Mesa, and indicated he could then begin a rehab assignment.

“It’s been a long road and feels really good to get towards the end of that tunnel,” Steele said Monday. “You see how the team’s playing, you just want to get back and help.”

Steele believes it’s “absolutely” realistic to think about pitching for the Cubs this season.

“As soon as we had the setback, we were having those thoughts of what makes the most sense, and we ended up deciding coming back in a bullpen role made the most sense,” Steele said. “I wasn’t going to have enough time to get stretched out to be a starter in an impactful way. So we just leaned towards the bullpen role and was able to build up quick.”

Steele, who anticipates not getting built up beyond 2-3 innings, will require a lengthy rehab stint since he hadn’t reached that point when the setback happened four months ago.

That was made clear Monday by manager Craig Counsell. He cautioned that Steele still has a ways to go before he pitches in the majors this season.

“I think we need to get him pitching in (rehab) games first — I don’t want to skip steps here, we’re not going to skip steps,” Counsell said Monday. “He rightfully should be at a place where that is what his head should be on, but we have a lot of steps to go before we get there.

“I mean, he hasn’t pitched in an affiliated game in almost two years, so let’s get him pitching in an affiliated game, and I think we can understand that he’s going to have to pitch in multiple games before he’s ready.”

The Cubs aren’t at the point where they can confidently count on Steele, 31, for late September and, they hope, the postseason. But the potential availability of Steele, particularly in the postseason where the focus is on collective outs from the pitching staff rather than innings needed from starters, is intriguing if he’s able to show enough in his rehab outings that he can be counted on to get big-league outs.

“It’s me probably pushing the envelope a little too much just trying to get back as fast as possible, trying to skip steps and stuff, but everything’s been going good this go around,” Steele said. “Probably feel better this go around than I did the first time so it’s awesome.

“I haven’t pitched in a while, definitely going to have the adrenaline and stuff that I haven’t been able to feel in quite some time, so it’s going to be exciting.”

The Cubs will continue to be deliberately careful in Steele’s build-up process, even with an eye on a reliever role. Right-hander Ben Brown (stress reaction in neck) is closer to returning than Steele. Brown will also throw live batting practice on Tuesday and fly back to Chicago with the team. The expectation, if he feels good, is that a rehab assignment would follow.