Despite ownership and front office members of the Chicago Cubs saying that the 2023 season was a failure, there were still plenty of positives that came out of it.
One of the biggest ones was the emergence of starting pitcher Justin Steele.
He had a great season and likely will finish within the top-5 of the NL Cy Young award when the voting results are released.
Steele had to become the ace of the Cubs after Marcus Stroman was sidelined with an injury that kept him out for an extended period of time.
Chicago was not expecting to lean on the left hander who had two years of MLB baseball experience under his belt prior to 2023.
But he took that responsibility and ran with it, finishing the season with the third-most wins (16) and sixth-lowest ERA (3.06).
This was quite a jump from his four wins in both 2021 and 2022, along with his reduction in ERA from 4.26 in 2021 and 3.18 in 2022.
So, can the Cubs expect to get this ace-level of production from Steele going forward and build their rotation around him?
That is the question that the front office will be tasked with answering this offseason.
If they believe he can become that type of player, then their rotation is pretty set with Javier Assad, Jordan Wicks, Kyle Hendricks likely back on a club option and Marcus Stroman potentially opting back in.
If they don't think he can be an ace on a contending team, then they'll need to spend more assets, whether that's money or draft picks, to acquire a high-level starting pitcher.
That would make things difficult in signing some of the high-end free agents this offseason to fill holes they desperately need to upgrade.
But if Chicago does decide that Steele can be their ace and his production drops off, they could be looking at another year where they miss the playoffs.
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