Jed Hoyer and the Cubs are heading into a pivotal offseason. After 4 straight years without a trip to the playoffs, Hoyer and Co. are looking to build a roster that can get the franchise back into October. As they work to enhance this group, we are analyzing the Top 10 building blocks already on the Cubs roster. Next up: Justin Steele.

Gerrit Cole, Justin Steele, Zack Wheeler.

Those are the three pitchers with the best ERA over the last two years with a minimum of 300 innings pitched.

The Cubs have an elite front-of-the-line starter on their roster, who is entering his prime (age-29 season in 2025) and is under team control for the next 3 seasons. It’s what makes him the Cubs’ most crucial building block heading into a pivotal offseason.

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Steele’s production is elite — and comes at a bargain for the Cubs. In 2024, he earned $4 million via arbitration, a fraction of what Cole ($36 million) and Wheeler ($23.5 million) garnered. The Cubs have elite performance at a reduced price — and they hope the production only continues to rise.

The lefty received Cy Young votes in 2023 and — if not for injuries that limited him to just 24 starts in 2024 — he likely would have received some again this season after posting a 3.07 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 134.2 innings.

Steele — as opposed to Jameson Taillon and Shota Imanaga, the Cubs’ other two strong starters — represents more than just an ace-caliber pitcher. He’s the model of the Cubs’ overhauled pitching infrastructure; one that struggled to produce any kind of production at the major-league level and is now churning out a pair of starters (Steele and Javier Assad) and a healthy flock of relief options.

The biggest question surrounding the former 5th-round draft pick is health. In 2023, a forearm injury caused him to miss time in June. This past season, a hamstring injury on Opening Day caused him to miss a month and then he was out another two weeks with elbow tendinitis in September.

He’s pitched 86 fewer innings than Wheeler over the last two years.

Corbin Burnes and Framber Valdez, who rank 4th and 5th, respectively on ERA over the last 2 years (min. 300 IP) have pitched over 65 more innings than Steele, too.

But Steele is taking steps over the next few months and next season to try and address that.

“I think it’s something we start looking at — some pre-things we can do in the offseason to put my forearm in a better spot going into the season,” Steele said. “Or just in between starts, doing different things to make sure it’s in a better spot going into the next start.

“Doing the little things in the smaller areas to try and preventative of flare-ups in the future.”

[MORE: Cubs starter Justin Steele has a clear goal for the offseason]

The Cubs have built their team on the back of a solid defense and a strong rotation staff — Steele is the anchor of that group. Imanaga had a wonderful debut campaign in 2024 and there’ll be a debate as to who takes the ball on Opening Day against the Dodgers in Japan.

But Steele has shown it’s a good problem to have — and gives the Cubs an enviable arm at the front of their rotation.