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Cubs’ Craig Counsell Makes Shota Imanaga Announcement After Justin Steele 2024 Injury

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jon Conahan | Last updated May 7, 2025 3:00 PM ET

The Chicago Cubs have lost Justin Steele for the entire campaign, an unfortunate situation for one of the top teams in Major League Baseball.

Losing an ace is never an ideal situation for any team in the league, but the Cubs have been derailed by injuries early on. Unfortunately, Shota Imanaga is also now injured, injuring his hamstring.

On Opening Day in 2024, Steele injured his left hamstring and didn't return to the rotation until May 6. Speaking to reporters about the injury, Skipper Craig Counsell said before the game against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday that it's two different individuals, but they have to see progress from Imanaga day by day, comparing the situations.

"I mean it's the same injury in terms of it's a hamstring injury," Counsell said, per Fox. "I think they're two different individuals. The severity's different, so we just got to take case by case. ... We're just going to progress day by day for a while."

As Counsell said, everybody's body is different, and the Cubs can't compare the two in that sense.

However, they also saw how important it is to get guys back on the mount and healthy.

If they continue playing the way they have over the first month or so of the season, they should be just fine, but the Cubs have started to struggle a bit recently, going 6-4 over their last 10 games.

Only four games ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central, they need to get healthy before things turn for the worse.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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