LOS ANGELES — An MRI revealed Justin Steele is “dealing with the same injury” as last year, when a bout with tendinitis briefly shut him down during the stretch run, Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell said.
Steele, however, will seek a second opinion on his injured left elbow.
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“He’s going to get some more opinions on it,” Counsell said before Friday’s series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers. “We’re kind of dealing with the same thing he was last year, and for that reason, Justin wants to make sure, and we want to make sure, that we get the right information moving forward. So he’s going to get another opinion and then go from there.”
Steele pitched seven scoreless innings at home against the Texas Rangers on Monday but came out of that start with his left elbow feeling abnormally tight, a condition he attributed partly to the cold weather. Two days later, with the issue persisting, the Cubs placed him on the 15-day injured list for what they hoped would be a minimum stint. At this point, though, his timetable is uncertain.
Steele, who pitched to a 3.10 ERA in 78 starts from 2022 to 2024, missed the first two weeks of September last season with what was described by the team as tendinitis. His recent flare-up clearly has the Cubs worried.
Asked if Steele could be headed for Tommy John surgery, a procedure he underwent in 2017, Counsell said: “There’s no decisions right now. Justin wants to get all the information. He wants to get another opinion. So until we do that, I think we got to wait for that and let him use all the information to decide what’s next.”
