The Rundown: Team USA Advances, DeRosa Makes Another Curious Move, Steele Throws Live, Cubs’ Value Soars

I would like to consider myself a modestly intelligent person, but my parents will probably agree that I’ve not always been the best decision-maker. Like when I opened my first checking account and spent nearly every penny on a pair of Oakley E Wire sunglasses. Or that time I picked up the two-liter bottle filled with foil and acidic bathtub cleaner, only to have it blow up after about two steps. Thankfully, all the force went out the bottom.

I was reminded of that near miss when I read the story about an Indiana high school basketball player who returned to help his team win their sectional after losing two fingers in a fireworks accident last May. My decision-making is still questionable, as evidenced by a growing collection of tattoos, but sometimes I get it right. Like the one of a tomahawk ribeye steak with a baseball bat handle instead of a bone. You know, because an RBI is sometimes called a ribeye.

It was done by David Nash at Elm Street Tattoo in the Deep Ellum section of Dallas, which we were visiting between the Cubs’ first two games in 2024. If you’ve never visited, you really should. There are loads of great restaurants and shops, including the Warstic flagship store and headquarters, and it doesn’t really feel like you’re immediately adjacent to a hulking metroplex.

Similarly, I keep having to remind myself that Team USA’s World Baseball Classic games are being played in Texas. Maybe it’s that Houston’s ballpark bears the name of a Japanese HVAC manufacturer in addition to the global competition, even if a lot of the other teams are just Americans in disguise. But former Cubs great Michael Soroka is a born-and-bred hoser from Calgary, so it was easy to get our collective patriotic blood up a little more than usual.

After his boneheaded strategic blunder against Italy, which he has now chalked up to a “false narrative” created by his own direct quotes, manager Mark DeRosa was taking no chances on Friday. Well, he did play it a little fast and loose with reliever David Bednar in the 7th. But when he needed three clean outs to seal the win, DeRosa went to Mason Miller for a perfect frame.

Between his 102 mph fastball and diving slider, the Padres reliever sat down all three Canadians he faced. Of his last 20 outs recorded between MLB and the WBC, 19 have come via strikeout. The Cubs accounted for eight of those during their NLDS win over the Padres, and Miller got the heater up to 104 against them. The 27-year-old began his college career at Division III Waynesburg University and took off after he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a sophomore.

Learning how to manage the disease allowed Miller to gain strength and weight, going from 6-foot-5 and 150 pounds to over 200 pounds. Teams are going to have a very difficult time beating the Padres if they head into the last inning with a deficit.

PCA to LF?

Current Cubs greats Alex Bregman and Pete Crow-Armstrong account for three of their team’s eight hits and two of the four RsBI last night, and the former even took on a slightly different role. With Team USA clinging to a two-run lead, DeRosa chose to move the game’s best defensive center fielder from Daikin Park’s cavernous center to its diminutive left. Byron Buxton was once a tremendous defender, but 2017 was a long time ago.

His 26 outs above average that season stand as the most in history by a center fielder, five more than what PCA had last year, but he’s never had more than 11 before or since. What’s more, Buxton’s 2025 campaign featured 3 OAA with -5 defensive runs saved. Those numbers ranked 16th and 19th, respectively, among all MLB center fielders with at least 500 innings played.

Some have argued that PCA is more comfortable in left based on his *checks notes* nine games played there in the minors, but let’s come the hell on here. Others assume the young buck deferred to the elder statesman, which would be totally understandable if we were talking about an All-Star game or other exhibition matchup. But when you’re talking about a game that actually matters, it doesn’t matter who’s willing to defer to whom. The manager needs to make decisions based on data.

Roman Anthony isn’t a terrible defender in left, but going with a superior glove made sense. What didn’t make sense was making a marginal upgrade at one position while significantly downgrading at another, more important spot. Center is a more premium role, and it’s ever more so given Daikin’s dimensions. And while it’s silly for me to keep harping on this when the move “worked,” I’m the kind of weirdo who favors process over results.

The same goes for being happier with a hard-hit ball that is caught than a duck snort that falls in, at least when we remove context. In certain situations, you’d obviously prefer a hit over an out. But as the sample expands, you’ll get better and better results by hitting the ball hard in the air.

What we can all agree on is that sending Paul Skenes to the bump against the Dominican Republic on Sunday night is the only call.

Steele Faces Batters

Justin Steele started his throwing program well before the start of camp, so it wasn’t all that surprising to hear two weeks ago that he’d gotten the green light from his surgeon to resume full-intent baseball activities. He and the Cubs are still sticking to a cautious schedule that could see him return as late as June, which could mean being placed on the 60-day IL to start the season, but everything about his rehab says he could come back sooner.

The latest step, and by far the biggest to date, was his live bullpen against Michael Busch and Jonathon Long at Sloan Park on Friday. Other players and staff were in attendance as the lefty induced some ugly swings as he faced batters for the first time in nearly a year. Though he reportedly threw only 19 pitches, his level of confidence in his comeback surely surged.

“I’ve worked really hard to come back as fast as I could and as strong as I could,” Steele told Jordan Bastian afterward. “It was really cool to see all my teammates and coaches come out to watch.”

It helps that he’s coming back from an internal brace UCL revision rather than a full ligament replacement, and Steele has said that this rehab feels better. He didn’t have the same sense of having to re-learn how to pitch and of having new hardware in his arm, which is generally true for this type of procedure. Internal brace recovery can be 50% faster than TJ, so being back inside of a year isn’t a stretch.

That said, neither Steele nor the Cubs are in any hurry to rush him back into action. From the sounds of it, though, his progress is already ahead of even the most optimistic expectations.

“Looks like Justin,” pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said after the outing. “There’s days where he has really good cut to the fastball and gets weak contact. And there’s days where it has a little more carry, where you get more swing and miss. I thought today, you kind of saw a little bit of both.”

More News and Notes

• ESPN’s Jorge Castillo reports that a pair of Team Japan’s stars are expected to make the jump to MLB next year. Righty Hiromi Itoh and third baseman/outfielder Teruaki Sato should be posted in the offseason. The 28-year-old Itoh just won NPB’s version of the Cy Young and the 27-year-old Sato hit a league-leading 40 homers.
• According to CNBC’s latest team valuations, the Cubs are worth $5.25 billion. That’s third in MLB behind the Yankees ($9B) and Dodgers ($8B), and it’s about 78% higher than the $2.95 billion league average. Of course, that’s a little disingenuous when you consider how top-heavy these valuations are. If you remove the three aforementioned behemoths, the average team is around $2.45 billion. Then take out the Red Sox and Giants, and…well, you get my idea.
• The Cubs actually passed the Red Sox by increasing from $4.5 billion in last year’s valuations. That’s a jump of 16.7% in just 12 months, well above the 13% league average, so it’s a damn good thing Tom Ricketts opted to open up the pocketbooks a bit.
• Of course, it would be even nicer if he had chosen to invest more money into Marquee. Ricketts recently said the team-owned network is “one of the best things we ever did” amid the continuing collapse of the RSN market, but Marquee’s spring training slate has been slashed from previous years. The network exists for literally one reason, yet Cactus League games have typically been replaced by replays of the 2016 World Series parade or other such “shoulder programming.”
• Steele is a noted sports card collector, but did you know that UFC memorabilia makes up the largest part of his personal collection? He recently shared that he believes he trails only world-famous DJ Steve Aoki in terms of his UFC collection.
• Dansby Swanson is hoping a change to his offseason workouts will help him stay more athletic in the box, but the biggest change may have been mental. He’s simplified his process in the cage and hasn’t been tinkering as much, which should yield more consistent results.

Trailer Time

What makes two people soulmates? That question is the crux of Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen, an upcoming Netflix horror series from executive producers and Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer. The eight-episode run releases on March 26 and tells the story of Rachel (Camila Morrone) and Nicky (Adam DiMarco), who travel to his family’s secluded vacation cabin for their wedding. The creepy factor is off the charts here and I’m getting strong vibes of Ready or Not and Cabin in the Woods, with perhaps a hint of Evil Dead.