Justin Steele Clarifies Timeline for Cubs Return After Getting Medical Clearance

Justin Steele shared the good news on social media on Saturday. On Sunday, the Chicago Cubs left-hander faced reporters for the first time since he revealed that he had medical clearance to be a full-go after having elbow surgery last year.

“He’s [Dr. Keith Meister] cleared me to, you know, [be a] full go as far as baseball activities,” he said in front of his locker on Sunday. “No restrictions.”

Steele went 3-1 with a 4.76 ERA in four starts last season before he suffered the elbow injury. He struck out 21 and walked five in 22.2 innings. The surgery was a revision of his UCL, which required Tommy John surgery in 2017. Dr. Meister is one of the pioneers of revision surgery, which requires less time for recovery.

Steele had surgery in April of last year, so he’s 11 months into his recovery. So, now what? He talked about it with reporters and with Marquee Sports.

Justin Steele’s next steps

Steele indicated that the timeline the Cubs have had for his return is still generally in place. There’s a reason why Chicago and Steele are taking that approach, too. It’s not about getting him back on the field as soon as possible. It’s about budling him up for important baseball.

“I would still be sticking to the same time that we kind of had — May, June-ish,” he said. “You all of this is with the mind that the outings in October and November are gonna be the ones that matter the most. So, I would say keep that in mind as we're talking about this.”

“As far as doctor’s orders, he’s cleared me. Full-go as far as baseball activities, no restrictions.”

Justin Steele has been cleared for baseball activities and expects to fully return in May or June 👏 pic.twitter.com/CB09wwbjX0
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) March 1, 2026

The Cubs were thin when it came to starting pitching in the postseason and could have used Steele. Even with that lack of depth, the Cubs were able to win their NL Wild Card series and push the Milwaukee Brewers to five games in the divisional round before losing. The Brewers went on to lose to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.

Chicago doesn’t have those issues in spring training. The Cubs have seven healthy arms in their starting rotation depth chart, including Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Edward Cabrera, Matthew Boyd, Cade Horton, Colin Rea, and Javier Assad. Two long relievers — Jordan Wicks and Ben Brown — can fill in to start, too.

Adding Steele would give Cubs management a good problem. It would also allow them to ramp him up slowly during the regular season, with the hope that Chicago is playing October baseball for the second straight season.

His breakthrough season was in 2023, when he went 16-5 with a 3.06 ERA in 30 starts, with 176 strikeouts and 36 walks in 173.1 innings. He made the National League All-Star team for the first time and finished in the Top 5 in Cy Young voting.

The Cubs’ fifth-round pick in 2014 is 32-22 in 102 games (91 starts) with 517 strikeouts and 155 walks in 506.2 innings.