Head coach Tommy Hottovy may want to rethink his strategies in the upcoming games for the Chicago Cubs after pitcher Justin Steele has been deemed to be set for a season-ending surgery, which means that the Cubs would be without one of its best performers on the big stage and will have a shift in its rotations moving forward in the season.

Steele, who had lingering issues on his flexor tendon and now has a new issue with the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow, is now slated to miss out on the rest of the MLB season as he will have an upcoming surgery in the said areas. This is definitely a big blow for the Cubs, who were initially working on a plan to get back on the playoff stage and win big games down the stretch.

The Cubs were fifth overall in the National League to begin the season with an 11-7 record before Steele went down with an injury. It is expected that the record is going to take some tough hits considering how big of a contributor Steele is when it comes to coming up with wins for the team early this season.

Health Over Contention

Injuries are normal, despite how unfortunate it can be. For the Cubs, it just came at the wrong time, albeit an early one considering that they were enjoying some of the best starts that the club has seen in years. However, Hottovy believes that it is going to be quite a long ride for them, and that Steele may well be back sooner than later.

“You feel for Justin, just the competitor he is. He wants to be out there,” Hottovy said before the Cubs' 4-2 victory over the Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball. “He wanted me to know from him and talk through it a little bit, and kind of talk through what options he had and what plans he had. That's the kind of guy he is. He wants to respect the work we’ve all put in together. We’ve known each other for a long time now.”

At the age of 29, Steele was the longest-tenured player in the Cubs right now. Selected with the fifth pick in the 2014 MLB Draft, the pitcher was off to a blazing start, and one can say that this is quite a situation that they’ve found themselves in so far. Still, health is a promising concern, and it is not even clear if Steel will also require a Tommy John surgery.

Timetable for Steele

Steele came up with seven shutout innings against Texas in some of the worst conditions – such as pitching his first at 34 degrees. He would go on to feel some discomfort around the fifth inning but was not alarmed enough to stop pitching. To sum it up, Steele had a solid 4.76 ERA with 21 strikeouts and five walks in 22 2/3 innings – so tough to see a season-ending surgery at that.

“It’s kind of the life of a Major League pitcher,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said on Sunday about how tough it is to see Steele injured at a time like this. “I talked to him this morning again, and he’s got a great attitude about it, as he always does, and knows that it’s kind of part of the career that he’s chosen. He’ll take it a step at a time and do the best he can to come back even better.”

With Steele out of the picture for now, the Cubs may well bring the best out of its front four in Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Matthew Boyd, and Ben Brown. They do have a 12-day period coming up, which should be a test of their depth moving forward.