A significant update on Justin Steele came from Craig Counsell tonight after the Cubs extra innings loss in Texas. In short: Yes, a stint on the Injured List is likely for Justin Steele. But we still don’t know how severe this hamstring injury is. With that said, the injury went from being classified as tightness to being classified as a strain, which feels like it could be a meaningful distinction.
To determine the next steps, Justin Steele is set to get an MRI tomorrow. It’s at least that serious.
Here’s Craig Counsell on the injury:
And here’s Justin Steele, himself:
***Original Post Follows***
Yep. That’s about as bad as it gets. All those fears and anxieties you felt when Justin Steele took that liner off his knee in spring training came back tonight, only this time it’s a soft tissue injury during the regular season. Crap. Crap. Crap.
Justin Steele Exits Game with Apparent Hamstring Injury
In case you missed it, Cubs ace Justin Steele went down tonight, successfully fielding a bunt down the first base line. He immediately grabbed his leg in what appears to be a hamstring injury.
To add insult to injury, Justin Steele was absolutely CRUISING tonight, with six strikeouts through 4.2 innings pitched. Julian Merryweather came into relieve him. We’ll update this post as soon as we know more.
I don’t need to tell you how important Justin Steele is to the potential success of the 2024 Chicago Cubs. He’s not just their ace, he’s the guy with by far the highest ceiling on the pitching staff. So while the Cubs have plenty of depth to weather an injury to almost anyone else (hell, they’re already without Jameson Taillon), losing Steele for any serious amount of time hurts uniquely bad. Here’s hoping it was just some cramping and not something that will last.
UPDATE: This is the bare minimum of an update, given the fact that we all saw it pretty clearly (I mean, look at that image below), but Buster Olney did note on the broadcast that the Cubs are confirming it was a hamstring injury for Justin Steele. No mention of severity, which would’ve actually been useful.
UPDATE 2: Sahadev Sharma (The Athletic) adds “tightness” to the detail list, which I suppose is better than some other words that could follow the word hamstring.
