When selected in the fifth round of the 2014 MLB draft out of Lucedale, Miss., left-hander Justin Steele didn’t know much about the Chicago Cubs.
“All I knew was that my high school field was named after Claude Passeau Sr., and he pitched for the Chicago Cubs, and pitched in an All-Star game for ’em,” Steele said in a Tribune interview. “Once I got there I started to learn how great and historic an organization it is. I probably met him when I was younger, but I’m really close to his family, and his grandson, Casey Passeau.”
Passeau was the last Cubs pitcher to get the starting nod in an All-Star game in 1946. Now the kid who played on the field named after him will pitch for the National League in Tuesday’s Midsummer Classic in Seattle.
“That’s really weird,” Steele said with a grin.
Steele didn’t get a chance to become the first Cubs starter since Passeau. Arizona Diamondbacks veteran Zac Gallen was named the All-Star starter on Monday. With Marcus Stroman taking a pass on the game and Dansby Swanson out with a left heel bruise, Steele will be the only Cub All-Star with a chance to play.
Steele said he hopes to pitch but mostly wants to enjoy the event with his family, celebrating a career that has taken off since joining the Cubs out of the bullpen in 2021.
He was moved into the rotation that August after president Jed Hoyer’s massive sell-off of stars that resulted in a rebuild, and has compiled a 3.26 ERA over 49 starts since. Steele’s 2.56 ERA in 2023 is second in the league to Clayton Kershaw’s 2.55, and first in the majors in adjusted ERA+ (172).
“I’ve always known I was capable of doing these kinds of things,” Steele said. “Just wanted to trust the process, keep learning and keep a good head on my shoulders. Those are the things that got me here. The list of people who’ve helped me get to this point is endless. I could write a book.
“But everybody in this locker room has helped me in some way get to this point. It goes back to my T-ball days, my high school days. Everyone who has been a part of my journey has helped me get here.”
For a Cubs organization that has been deficient in drafting and developing pitching since the start of the Theo Epstein/Jed Hoyer regime in 2012, the selection of Steele to the NL squad was a momentous occasion.
“It’s really rewarding, seeing a guy you drafted and had Tommy John (surgery) and then started out in the bullpen, and for him to develop into a really easy All-Star selection,” said Hoyer, the general manager when Steele was drafted, and now the club president. “It was very obvious he was going to make it.
“Well earned. Watching that maturity, both in stuff and as a person, is wonderful. Was I happy for (Stroman and Swanson)? Yeah, of course I was happy for them. But (Steele’s selection) was the one like, ‘That’s awesome.’ It’s great organizationally, and great for Justin as someone who really worked hard and overcame some obstacles.”
Steele, 27, was asked if he remembered watching the All-Star game as a kid. Naturally, like most millennial fans, he pointed to a Home Run Derby memory over the game itself.
“I grew up watching them,” he said. “Maybe not all of them, but most of the time they were on I’d watch ‘em. One Home Run Derby I think back to is Josh Hamilton’s (in 2008 at Yankee Stadium). I don’t think he won that one. But it was still pretty cool.”
For the record, that was the one where Hamilton hit 28 first-round home runs, including 15 in a row, before losing to Justin Morneau in the finals. It still stands as one of the greatest Home Run Derby performances.
Chicago Tribune Sports
Weekdays
A daily sports newsletter delivered to your inbox for your morning commute.
Steele’s dominance and mound presence have often been compared to former Cubs starter Jon Lester, another left-hander whose advice to the young pitcher in 2022 helped Steele develop more bite on his four-seamer. There are even side-by-side photos on the internet of Lester and Steele celebrating outs in the same manner, almost like Steele was copying him.
“Awesome meeting him,” Steele said of Lester. “Grew up watching him and when I was drafted by the Cubs it was about the same time they signed him, so I had a ton of time watching him at the big-league level. I can even say I modeled the way I pitch after him in a few ways. Just casual conversations with people, there’s a lot to learn from that, how they carry themselves.”
Steele’s humility is on display when he walks to the mound to Johnny Cash’s song, “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.”
But that demeanor belies an inner confidence that began to develop almost from the day he held a baseball in his left hand.
This is a place Steele always knew he wanted to be.
“When I was like 4, 5 years old in kindergarten, the teacher would ask me what I wanted to be and to put it on a piece of paper,” he said. “I’d always draw a baseball player, so to say I didn’t think it was going to happen … I was always striving for it. I always wanted it.
“And it feels good to achieve it.”
