Justin Steele is the ace and Cy Young competitor the Cubs haveactually been waiting for

A blue-eyed and shabby Cubs left-hander, appropriately being compared to world champ and previous ace Jon Lester, is on the National League’s shortlist for Cy Young award competitors. While being in the Cy discussion itself warrants high appreciation, for Chicago, the continued success of this modest 6-foot-2 beginning pitcher suggests so much more. 

In 28-year-old Justin Steele, the Cubs boasted persistence on the method to finding their late-blooming ace. 

Steele was prepared out of high school in 2014 and invested 7 up-and-down years in the small leagues priorto making his MLB launching with Cubbies, as a reducer. Just 2 years lateron, the surgical southpaw is 2nd in the NL in ERA (2.80), seventh in WHIP (1.17) and connected for veryfirst in wins (14). His park-adjusted ERA+ of 163 leads the majors. 

Steele’s total numbers are on par with Arizona’s Zac Gallen and San Diego’s Blake Snell, however he doesn’t get much love from the market at big and nationwide baseball audiences alike, in part due to name acknowledgment. For fans outdoors Wrigleyville, Steele is not yet a family name.

The Cubs wear’t requirement Steele to radiate superstar to construct a structure around him. He has the concrete qualities that will favorably shape Chicago’s future — with Steele serving as the ace. That future showedup even faster this season as the Cubs climbedup from a sub-.500 group to a wild-card competitor, thanks in part to Steele’s nerves of, well, steel. 

Opposing players can anticipate fastball after fastball after fastball from Steele — his 65.5% rate leads MLB, a visible uptick from his 56.4% mark last year — and he’s still able to flummox them, due mainly to its special cut. 

Following some midseason recommendations from Lester, who called Cubs supervisor David Ross with a helpful pointer for Steele in June, the 2023 All-Star has continuously improved his four-seam fastball command. That’s made for significantly less sinkers and more sliders and fastballs in his collection.

He’s 14-3 on the season. He has the sport’s second-best rate of house runs per 9 innings (0.68), behind just colleague Marcus Stroman. His 16 quality begins are connected for third-most in the majors. Not bad for a beginning pitcher who has yet to getin his veryfirst arbitration year.

Steele is battle-tested, due to his especially long, and at times tough, minor-league journey. He wentthrough Tommy John surgicaltreatment as a 22-year-old in August 2017 to repairwork his hurt left elbow. After havingahardtime in his Double-A return, he made some changes in 2020 as the minor-league season was canceled and bounced back with a 1.32 ERA in 9 videogames (five begins) for Triple-A Iowa, triggering his big-league call-up in the summertime of 2021.

“It wasn’t a direct, straight line to the huge leagues for me,” Steele stated at this year’s All-Star Game in Seattle. “I invested 7 years in the minors, had injuries, had ups and downs. For me, coming out of high school and things, being a young kid, it indicates a lot to me that I stuck with it, neverever offered up, constantly thought in myself, that I lastly made it here and I get to gain the benefits and live the dream.”

The Cubs extended that perseverance when Steele required a couple of years in the huge leagues to discover his footing and grow into the dominant left-hander that he is for them today. His sluggish pulse hasactually made for a major-leaguer who hence far hasn’t failed under the brilliant lights and huge phase. Chicago will requirement more of that cold behavior in its playoff chase.

Steele’s run down the stretch will be intriguing to display, in part since he’s currently tossed more innings (132) than ever inthepast. In a tight NL wild-card image, the Cubs wear’t have the high-end that clear department leaders like the Braves and Dodgers do of resting their aces priorto the crucial October spell. 

The Cubs, in reality, frantically requirement Steele to provide in these last five-plus weeks, specifically while Stroman is sidelined with an injury (right rib cartilage fracture) that simply increased in seriousness. Steele hasactually been the top entertainer by far in a beginning rotation — the group consistsof Javier Assad, Kyle Hendricks, Jameson Taillon, Drew Smyly — that ranks simply seventh in the NL in ERA (4.46). Cody Bellinger and the Cubs’ offense haveactually held up their end of the offer, publishing the NL’s fifth-best offense by OPS. 

If Chicago can capture into the playoffs, Steele would preferably take the ball for Game 1 of the opening series — and it goes beyond the numbers. Since he was a late bloomer, Steele is under group control all the method up to his age-32 season. Any pressure of capacity agreement extensions or complimentary firm won’t getin his truth for a handful of years. And, even when it does, he’s currently showed a levelheadedness that recommends none of that will be a interruption. 

For now, the Cubs are confident he can simply lead them to the playoffs. Should they fall brief, as the popular Cubs stating goes, there’s constantly next year. Only, by then Steele may have some hardware on the mantel. And Chicago would have even more factor to think.

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Deesha Thosar is an MLB author for FOX Sports. She formerly covered the Mets as a beat pressreporter for the New York Daily News. The child of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.