{"id":99173,"date":"2025-04-13T19:22:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T23:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=99173"},"modified":"2025-04-13T19:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T23:22:22","slug":"cubs-justin-steele-out-2025-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/13\/cubs-justin-steele-out-2025-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs\u2019 Justin Steele Out for 2025 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CHICAGO \u2014 In a major blow to their starting rotation, the <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/cubs\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chicago Cubs<\/a> will be without left-hander <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/steelju01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Steele<\/a> for the remainder of the 2025 season, the team announced on Sunday. Steele will undergo reconstructive <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/25\/diamondbacks-starter-tommy-john\/\" target=\"_self\">elbow surgery<\/a> to repair his left flexor tendon and address his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/25\/nationals-dj-herz-elbow-injury\/\" target=\"_self\">UCL<\/a>. Initially diagnosed as tendinitis, the injury ended what looked to be a promising campaign for the 2023 All-Star. Steele posted a 3-1 record and 4.76 ERA in four starts thus far in 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">LHP Justin Steele will undergo left elbow surgery and miss remainder of 2025 season, per Cubs manager Craig Counsell. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XKuzVCaUXp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/XKuzVCaUXp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB (@MLB) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLB\/status\/1911522730253455667?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 13, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cJustin\u2019s a warrior, and this is a tough blow for us,\u201d Cubs president of baseball operations <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/10\/08\/cubs-jed-hoyer-do-or-bye-season\/\" target=\"_self\">Jed Hoyer<\/a> said. \u201cWe\u2019re focused on his recovery and getting him back stronger.\u201d Manager <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/counscr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Craig Counsell<\/a> added, \u201cIt\u2019s unclear until the surgeon sees the UCL, but we\u2019re preparing for any outcome.\u201d Steele, 29, previously underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017, making this his second major elbow procedure.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Cubs Pitcher Justin Steele Will Require Elbow Surgery, Is Out for Season<\/h2>\n<h3>Media Reactions<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The news set a rumble across social media. \u201cAwful for the Cubs, who were off to a great start,\u201d ESPN\u2019s <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JeffPassan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jeff Passan<\/a> commented. The Chicago Tribune\u2019s <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/M_Montemurro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Meghan Montemurro<\/a> noted, \u201cLosing Steele dims a rotation that had postseason hopes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Chicago Cubs left-hander Justin Steele will undergo reconstructive elbow surgery and miss the remainder of the 2025 season. Unclear yet whether it&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/1911519922091704496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 13, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Who Will Step Up?<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Justin Steele out for the season, the Cubs&#8217; rotation loses a valuable asset. In the short term, they will be turning to veteran right-hander <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reaco01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Colin Rea<\/a>, who gets the start for Sunday&#8217;s series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with left-hander <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wicksjo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordan Wicks<\/a> likely to join the rotation from Triple-A Iowa. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/assadja01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Javier Assad<\/a>, nearing a return from an oblique injury, could also bolster the staff. Despite the setback, the Cubs (9-6) remain optimistic, still under a month into the 2025 campaign, with plenty of time to adjust and make a run toward winning the NL Central.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Colin Rea is \u201clikely\u201d going to start tomorrow, per Craig Counsell <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LBY076Xobw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/LBY076Xobw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SleeperCubs (@SleeperCubs) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SleeperCubs\/status\/1911211629649277121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 13, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Matt Marton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHICAGO \u2014 In a major blow to their starting rotation, the Chicago Cubs will be without left-hander Justin Steele for the remainder of the 2025 season, the team announced on Sunday. Steele will undergo reconstructive elbow surgery to repair his left flexor tendon and address his UCL. Initially diagnosed as tendinitis, the injury ended what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5310,"featured_media":99183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1071,35],"tags":[2513,5933,4196],"class_list":["post-99173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cubs","category-mlb","category-news","tag-injured-list","tag-justin-steele","tag-ucl"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99173"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99184,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99173\/revisions\/99184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}