Steele ready to meet expectations as Cubs ace

MESA, Ariz. – When Craig Counsell saw pitcher Justin Steele at Cubs Convention last month, the manager was thrown off by the lefty’s clean appearance. Counsell was used to seeing Steele carve through the Brewers’ lineup with more unkempt, scruffy facial hair.

“He was like, ‘I don't think I like the clean look. I think you need to look a little rough,’” Steele said with a laugh this week. “I told him, ‘That's no problem. I don't like haircuts and I don't like shaving.’”

With his January wedding in the books, Steele listened to his new manager and arrived in Arizona this spring with his signature stubble. The lefty looked the part of the pitcher who blended his soft-spoken, aw-shucks personality with a perplexing pitch arsenal that added up to a career year as the Cubs’ surprise ace in 2023.

The task at hand now for the 28-year-old Steele is to build on a campaign in which he made an All-Star team and finished fifth in voting for the National League Cy Young Award. He returns as the home-grown arm that developed into a front-end starter, and a crucial core piece to the team’s postseason aspirations this year.

“When guys have big years or have big expectations, they come in and they put a lot of weight on their shoulders,” Cubs veteran catcher Yan Gomes said. “If anything, it's myself and guys around here that have played for a while being able to communicate with him like, ‘Hey, we don't need you to be anybody else. We just need you to be Justin Steele.’

“That guy will take care of business, because he's extremely talented.”

In 30 starts last season, Steele finished 16-5 with a 3.06 ERA and ended with 176 strikeouts against 36 walks in 173 1/3 innings. The lefty really hit his stride in a 16-game stretch between May and September, when he went 10-1 with a 2.30 ERA and 102 strikeouts with 17 walks in 94 innings.

Steele made three starts last year against the Brewers – with Counsell watching from the opposing dugout – and spun a 1.50 ERA with 21 strikeouts and only two walks in 18 innings. That lowered Steele’s career ERA to 2.24 in 13 appearances against Milwaukee.

Counsell said he already joked with Steele this spring about not understanding how or why Milwaukee's offense could not solve the lefty. Even after joining the Cubs and getting a deeper look under the statistical hood, the manager still needs a clear explanation.

“I don't know if there's always an answer, right?” Counsell said. “Clearly, hitters do not see the baseball great. They do not pick up the spin great. That's why he gets a ton of chase. You hear things from hitters like, ‘The ball's heavy,’ or they just can't square it up good – it doesn't feel good.

“I don't know if we know quite yet how to exactly explain that. But, it's the key to him. He gets, basically, the ball in and he gets a large amount of swing off the plate. And it's a good pitch. It's tough movement profiles for the hitter.”

To Counsell's point, only Jesús Luzardo (147) and Patrick Corbin (134) among Major League lefties last year generated more swinging strikes on sliders out of the strike zone, per Statcast. Steele featured the slider 33.9% of the time while leading with his fastball at 62.6%. The lefty has a few other pitches he mixes in, but he leans mainly on those two.

“I feel like everybody knows at this point what I'm doing,” Steele said.

It is not always what Steele is doing per se, but what his fastball is doing. Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy explained that the lefty works on the side of the ball, leading to a mix of cut-ride movements. Even if the hitter guesses that a fastball is coming, it is not always predictable what version of Steele's heater will spin from his fingertips.

“That’s why he’s so good,” Counsell said.

Steele said he definitely has more confidence going into this season, given the success he experienced last year. The lefty noted that he kept his offseason routine the same as a year ago, including staying in Arizona most of the time so he could utilize the Cubs’ facilities.

“For me, it's kind of like, it's cool that it happened, now go do it again,” Steele said.

And with that scruffy beard.

“I like that he's got the facial hair back,” Counsell quipped.