The Cubs are still searching for bullpen help as the regular season winds down, and a few rehab arms are getting long looks in the minors. Justin Steele, Shelby Miller and Edward Cabrera have all been working their way through recent outings, with mixed results across the board.
Steele’s latest step came Sunday, when he worked 2.0 innings and allowed two hits and an earned run on 27 pitches. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out one batter.
Carson Wolf of The Wrigley Wire noted that Steele generated four whiffs in the outing and got more comfortable with his slider, and his second inning was a clean 1-2-3 frame finished with a nine-pitch strikeout. Steele’s first rehab appearance came on September 2, when he went 1.2 innings, gave up four hits and one earned run, and struck out two.
He threw 26 strikes among 36 pitches in that outing.
It’s still a very small sample, so there’s no way to know whether Steele will be ready for a big league return in the next few weeks. Even so, a healthy Steele could matter a lot for a bullpen that has been uneven lately. The Cubs could use that kind of stabilizing presence at exactly the right time.
Miller, meanwhile, hit an important checkpoint this weekend by appearing in back-to-back games for the first time in his rehab assignment, which began in early August. The outing didn’t go smoothly at the end, though.
He allowed four hits, four earned runs and two walks, even after striking out two of the first three hitters he faced. One sequence turned especially costly after a ball four was not challenged; the pitch actually caught the bottom of the zone for a strike.
Miller then gave up an RBI single, threw a wild pitch that let another run score, and was removed from the game. Tyler Santana later allowed a couple of Miller’s runners to score as well.
Still, there were encouraging signs. Miller is touching the high-90s and missing bats, and the fact that he came out of those back-to-back appearances healthy is the part the Cubs care about most. A call-up could be getting closer.
Cabrera’s situation looks more troubling. His latest rehab outing for the Iowa Cubs produced three hits, four earned runs and two walks, continuing a rough stretch that has not been limited to the majors.
He entered in the middle of the seventh inning, got a groundout to start, then surrendered back-to-back singles, including one after a full count. After working out of that inning, he returned for the eighth and gave up another single before issuing two straight walks.
There is some room for patience here, since the Cubs are asking Cabrera to make a significant midseason adjustment and he has never pitched in relief in his MLB career. But if the swing-and-miss stuff isn’t showing up even in the minors, it’s fair to wonder how much confidence the Cubs can have in using him down the stretch.
In Other News...
Roman Anthony Is Giving Red Sox Fans A Reason To Watch Closely
The late-season home run market has become one of those places where a hot streak can change the conversation fast, and Roman Anthony has pushed himself into the middle of it. The Red Sox rookie has given fans a reason to keep watching closely by showing the kind of power that can make a daily betting angle feel more than just guesswork, especially in a stretch where matchups and form matter as much as reputation.
For Cubs followers eyeing the broader National League picture, the appeal is familiar because this is the same kind of spotlight Pete Crow-Armstrong and Fernando Tatis Jr. often attract. Anthonys recent run has made him part of that discussion, with the article weighing his current production against the pitching he is set to face and leaving the question of whether the moment turns into another long ball tease or something more to play out. [Read more 🡒]
Seiya Suzuki Is Forcing A Big Cubs Decision In Right Field
Seiya Suzukis recent surge has pushed an already complicated Cubs outfield picture into sharper focus. With both Suzuki and Ian Happ headed toward free agency after the 2026 season, Chicago is staring at a decision that goes beyond simple roster fit and into the kind of long-term commitment teams prefer to resolve well before the market gets involved. Suzukis production has made him look like far more than a placeholder in right field, and it has only strengthened the case that the Cubs may eventually need to treat him like a core piece rather than a movable part.
The challenge is that the alternatives inside the organization are not especially comforting, which leaves the front office weighing outside help against the cost of keeping a bat like Suzukis in house. His next contract could land in the same neighborhood as comparable hitters such as Cody Bellinger, and the Cubs will have to decide how aggressively they want to pay for certainty in an outfield that already has another pending free agent and little obvious replacement depth behind them. Add in the financial haze of a possible lockout on the horizon, and this could become one of the more important calls Chicago makes over the next couple of seasons. [Read more 🡒]
Cubs Dodged A 2026 Rotation Problem Without Even Knowing It
The Cubs spent the trade deadline stocking up on arms, bringing in Clay Holmes, Kevin Gausman, Ryan Zeferjahn and Braxton Garrett in four separate deals that were designed to bolster the pitching staff right away and give the club more options down the road. Chicago also had its eye on another left-hander, Connelly Early, as part of the same deadline search for pitching depth, a sign the front office was already thinking beyond the immediate stretch run.
But Early wound up going to Washington instead, with the Nationals beating the Cubs to the deal in a swap that sent Curtis Mead to Boston. Both players were dealing with injury issues by the time the dust settled, and Early still has not pitched for Washington this season. For the Cubs, missing out may have looked like a dead end in the moment, but it also kept their deadline haul focused on the bigger arms they brought in, and it may have spared them from a lingering rotation question they did not know they were avoiding. [Read more 🡒]