The worst came to pass for the Chicago Cubs and Justin Steele on Sunday, as further testing revealed that the lefty's elbow injury will require reconstructive surgery that will sideline him for at least the remainder of the 2025 season.
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
This is obviously a huge blow to the Cubs' chances of contending for a World Series this season. Chicago is off to a solid start so far, leading the NL Central at 10-7 ahead of Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but that start has been largely driven by a scorching-hot offense; the team's pitching staff, particularly its starting rotation, was looking a bit thin even before losing Steele.
Now it could be in crisis mode, and while president Jed Hoyer might be able to find a star replacement at the trade deadline, Chicago is going to be facing an uphill climb to say the least. And that uphill climb becomes even more fraught when you consider everything that Hoyer and the Cubs have riding on this season, and what it could mean for their future with star outfielder Kyle Tucker.
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Justin Steele injury puts Cubs in awkward position with Kyle Tucker
Hoyer, Craig Counsell and the Cubs were feeling the heat even before they made the decision to give up significant assets to acquire Tucker just a year before he was set to hit free agency. But bringing Tucker aboard moved all of their chips to the middle; it's win big or bust for Chicago, both because this is the only year you're guaranteed to have Tucker at the heart of your lineup and also because you need to do whatever you can to convince him that this is where he wants to spend the rest of his career.
Now, though, the calculus becomes far trickier, and Hoyer may be forced to act out of desperation if he wants to salvage things. In order to win in the way you'd think the Cubs would need to in order to woo Tucker, Chicago will have to find a replacement for Steele that moves the needle, and that means dipping back into its strong farm system in order to pry, say, Sandy Alcantara away from the Miami Marlins.
That's going to be costly, but so will the alternative: paying Tucker so much that he feels like he can't say no. If it becomes clear that the Cubs can't salvage their title hopes in 2025, then at least keeping Tucker around becomes an absolute imperative to prevent this year from becoming a total disaster. But doing that means getting financially uncomfortable in a way that Hoyer and Tom Ricketts are loath to do. No matter what, Chicago is going to have to take a big risk over the next few months.