Why Cubs could skip Justin Steele’s next start despite him feeling ‘fine’ after exiting with tight back

MILWAUKEE – The way the Cubs reacted to Justin Steele’s back tightness Saturday, and their plan for him moving forward, is part of an approach to get him and Keegan Thompson through what is shaping up to be the longest season of their professional careers.

“He feels fine,” Cubs manager David Ross said of Steele Saturday. “I think it really was just some low back tightness, whatever that was from. We’ll get through Toronto, we’ve got an off day after Toronto. We’ll probably reassess the rotation, just try to line things up where everyone gets the proper amount of rest. But he’s fine.”

That off day next Thursday will be the Cubs’ first break after a stretch of 20 games in 19 days. The Cubs will likely use it to skip Steele’s next start.

The need to monitor Steele and Thompson’s workloads late this season has long been on the team’s radar.

Steele has thrown 199 innings, about 20 more innings than he’s pitched in any pro season. Thompson, at 104 1/3 innings, is approaching his 2018 high mark of 129 2/3 .

Two weeks ago, before either pitcher’s back tightened up – Thompson landed on the 15-day injured list last weekend – Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy spoke with the Sun-Times about the merits of weighing a range of information rather than setting a specific pitch limit.

“As an organization, I think we do a fantastic job of communicating between departments,” Hottovy said, “Talking to the training staff, talking to the strength staff, talking to the [research and development] team about what they’re seeing pith data-wise, and we’re just taking all of it in and trying to make our best decisions based off all the information. Also taking into consideration what the player feels, how he feels, how he feels like he’s recovering.”

So, when Steele felt his back tighten up on his last warm-up pitch before the sixth inning Saturday, they took a cautious approach.

Steele has been dominant the last couple months, posting a 1.46 ERA since the beginning of July. And on Friday, he tried to keep pitching in the sixth inning. He threw five pitches to Hunter Renfroe, inducing a long flyout to open the frame.

“I adjusted the way I was throwing a little bit, just to throw strikes,” Steele said after the game. “But the coaches and [athletic trainers] could tell something was going on.”

Ross and assistant athletic trainer Nick Frangella came out to check on Steele.

“Obviously, we didn’t want to push that,” Ross said after the game.

Steele’s pitch count was also already up to 88 pitches.

Controlling Steele and Thompson’s workload likely won’t mean shutting them down before the season ends. There’s value to having two developing pitchers, who could be integral members of the Cubs’ rotation for years to come, experience finishing a season.

That also doesn’t mean they’ll be throwing six innings every start down the stretch.

Thompson threw a bullpen on Saturday. His timeline to return from the IL is still unclear, but Hottovy said they plan to have him back making starts by the end of the year.

“It’s more about, how can we maximize what we want to do with him the rest of the year, but also on the front end, make sure he gets the recovery that we feel like he needs,” Hottovy said Saturday. “And we’re going to be able to read a lot of that in the bullpens that he’s going to be throwing.”

Hottovy describes Thompson’s bullpen Saturday as “a good step in the right direction.” But while Thompson’s pitches looked sharp, his execution wasn’t quite up to his normal standard, which Hottovy took as a sign of persisting fatigue.

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