Let's start with this: unless you're the Los Angeles Dodgers, there's no way to replace someone like Justin Steele without some sort of outside addition.
Chicago Cubs left-hander Justin Steele will undergo reconstructive elbow surgery and miss the remainder of the 2025 season. Unclear yet whether it's a full Tommy John or primary repair, but his season is over regardless. Awful news for the Cubs, who are off to a great start.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 13, 2025
The best you can do is weather the storm. The "next man up" mentality is an overused cliché in sports, but it's especially true during the long grind of a 162-game season.
And, in all fairness to the Chicago Cubs and front office head honchos Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins, the team did prepare for something like this over the winter. They signed a ton of depth, including Colin Rea, Matthew Boyd, and Chris Flexen, the former two of whom are taking turns in the rotation right now in place of Steele and Javier Assad.
And while Boyd is pitching really well thus far and Rea is a dependable fill-in, they aren't the caliber of arms the Cubs were window shopping for this winter.
Justin Steele injury is a reminder that Cubs lack superstar talent
Remember how the team set its sights on Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates as potential closer options, only to watch them — the two best relievers available this offseason — sign pricier deals with the Los Angeles Dodgers? Well, at least they saved face there by trading for the bullpen casualty of those signings, Ryan Brasier.
If you can think back that far, try to recollect the Winter Meetings and the following weeks, where the Cubs were rumored to be "big fish hunting" on the starting pitcher market. They let the free agent aces pass them by, but at least they were looking to Jesús Luzardo and the silly amount of high-quality arms the Seattle Mariners have been hoarding.
Of course, none of those players are in Chicago right now, and the Cubs will be left to fend for themselves with the depth and prospects they've acquired.
This is a discussion we've sort of had when the Cubs were considering a Lance Lynn signing, though the talking points remain more prevalent than ever in the wake of the Steele news.
And it's not like the Cubs have no high-end talent in the rotation. Shota Imanaga finished fifth in NL Cy Young voting as a "rookie" last year, and he's off to an even better start this season with a 2.70 ERA in 23 1/3 innings.
But this is not a position the Cubs should have found themselves in. All winter long, the fanbase was banging the drum for the team to use some of the funds it saved on the Cody Bellinger salary dump to acquire another No. 2 starter or better. Instead, the front office settled, as it so often has done since Theo Epstein packed his bags in 2020, for "good enough".
Again, no one can be blamed for Steele getting injured. And the franchise's decision-makers should be commended for accumulating the depth to withstand these kinds of injuries, which not every team does.
However, this news would have been a lot easier to swallow if Luzardo or Luis Castillo or Dylan Cease were on the team right now. The outlook wouldn't feel quite so bleak for the rest of 2025.
Ah well. At least the team has saved more than $30 million on its payroll from last year.