Jed Hoyer's cautious Justin Steele assessment exposes difficult Cubs playoff roster decision

Heading into the final weekend of the 2026 MLB regular season, it's all eyes on Justin Steele, who could still conceivably return to the big-league roster after spending the better part of the last year-and-a-half rehabbing from injury.

We all know the Chicago Cubs need bullpen help, especially if they want to make a run in October, but as we discussed on this week's episode of the Cubbies Crib podcast, it's not realistic to expect Steele to come back and immediately be a lockdown weapon for Craig Counsell.

And it seems that's a sentiment shared by Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer.

In an appearance on The Score, Hoyer acknowledged seeing a lot of 'encouraging things' from Steele of late, including a five-strikeout effort in his final rehab outing with Triple-A Iowa. While that positive momentum is all fine and dandy, the hard truth (as pointed out by Hoyer himself) is that it's late September, not May - and finding ways to get value out of Steele at this point could be difficult.

In May, you have some leash to slowly work guys back into the mix in mop-up duty, etc. But with the NL Wild Card picture still very much undetermined, there are no throwaway games left in the regular season and the stakes are even higher once the calendar flips to October.

Looming Cubs-Red Sox doubleheader could give Justin Steele a chance

With the Cubs and Red Sox playing a doubleheader on Friday, that could open the door to Steele's return. If he can eat multiple innings in one of those games to save the bullpen, that's a win in and of itself. Or, if Chicago locks up the top Wild Card seed by Saturday, maybe he gets his action then.

Now, what does that mean for October? It's too soon to tell. Right now, I'd say we see Steele on Sunday, but I don't know the Cubs want to put him in high-leverage spots in the postseason and potentially risk any sort of setback for 2027, when the lefty is set to play a critical role in the starting rotation.

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