Brewers’ division rival’s key starting pitcher set to miss far more time than expected

While the Milwaukee Brewers tread water amidst a team-wide power outage, the Chicago Cubs have gone streaking right to the top of the NL Central. They took a few lumps against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but for the most part, look like the first-half juggernaut they were a season ago.

Though they need to prove capable of sustaining this level of play over the course of a full season, credit where credit is due: The North Siders are winning despite having a ridiculous number of pitchers on the injured list (the total is currently up to 10).

One of those pitchers, Justin Steele, is among their best starters. He's been out since last April with an elbow injury, with the expectation being that he'd return to the fold sometime in the first two months of this season.

Alas, he's suffered a serious setback, as a flexor strain will keep him sidelined for the foreseeable future.

Brewers must take advantage of Cubs' pitching misfortunes

Between Steele and Cade Horton (who is out for the season following Tommy John surgery), the Cubs are now without two of their three most talented starting pitchers. They offered no firm timeline on the former's return to action, but Craig Counsell said that he doesn't expect Steele to be back in Chicago before the All-Star Break.

That's a brutal blow to withstand, especially in the league's best division. Every NL Central team currently has a record above .500, hence why the Brewers are nearly bringing up the rear despite a 15-14 record and +26 run differential.

In a literal sense, the Brewers can take advantage of the Cubs' depleted pitching depth when they play them in series in May and June. More abstractly, this is the kind of opening the Crew needed to stay attached to the division's hottest team.

And remember, that's all they really need to do over the next few months. The 2025 Brewers were able to enter the All-Star break down just one game to the 18-games-above-.500 Cubs, and they wound up running away with the NL Central thanks to a ridiculous second half. That might as well be the blueprint for the 2026 iteration of the team, which is still working to iron out the kinks.

Of course, like their division rivals, the Brewers are dealing with their own injury onslaught right now. Getting any one of Andrew Vaughn, Christian Yelich, or Jackson Chourio back from the injured list could prove the juice the offense has been missing in recent weeks. If that's the case, they won't even need help from their division rivals to get back into the thick of the race.

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