Cubs Wild Card push comes to screeching halt with frustrating but expected Justin Steele update

Against all odds, the Chicago Cubs were making a run at a spot in the 2024 postseason. Sure, that was the expectation entering the year, but things had gotten so bad to the point where they were at one point as many as nine games under .500 and were sellers at this year's trade deadline.

The Cubs won six in a row and nine of ten games in late August spanning into their first game of September, but ever since they completed a three-game sweep over the Washington Nationals, everything has gone wrong.

Their bullpen blew a 3-0 lead late in their series opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Craig Counsell then announced after the heartbreaking loss that their ace, Justin Steele, was going to have his start scheduled for the next game scratched as he was dealing with an elbow injury. The team would proceed to lose that game to fall to 4.5 games back of the third Wild Card spot in the NL.

The hope was that the injury was minor, but elbow injuries can't be messed around with. Sure enough, the Cubs predictably placed Steele onto the 15-day IL before Wednesday's series finale. The Cubs will be without their ace for at least 15 days, and presumably longer.

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Cubs playoff chances are as bleak as ever with Justin Steele injury update

The Cubs entered Wednesday's game with a 1.6 percent chance to make the playoffs per FanGraphs, and without Steele, their path becomes that much harder.

Steele, an All-Star last season, missed some time due to injury earlier this year but has been outstanding when healthy, posting a 3.09 ERA in 22 starts and 128 innings of work.

Not only has he had a great year, but Steele had been particularly dominant of late, posting a 2.03 ERA in the month of August and leading the team to wins in all five of his starts. Losing him for any amount of time, let alone multiple starts at the very least when the team needs every win it can get to remain in the race, is a huge blow.

Fortunately, the Cubs do have Jordan Wicks back from the IL who can take Steele's spot in the rotation, but Wicks is not Steele. It already was going to take a miracle for this team to make the playoffs, and now this injury might be the final nail in their coffin for 2024.