Despite a grueling rehab comeback from elbow surgery, Shelby Miller’s season is over as Chicago prioritizes reliability over risk during a high-stakes National League Wild Card race.
The Chicago Cubs have a few pitchers working their way back from injury right now.
Justin Steele continues to make progress from his injury. Steele has appeared in three rehab assignment outings and has allowed four earned runs across 5 ⅔ innings pitched. The southpaw is expected to make his fourth appearance with the Iowa Cubs on Wednesday.
Gavin Hollowell could be activated from the 15-day injured list very soon. Hollowell missed all of August with a shoulder injury, but has thrown the ball well on his current rehab assignment. The Cubs right-hander has given up one run across three innings pitched.
Shelby Miller was also one of those pitchers working his way back from an injury. Miller underwent elbow surgery late last season and was doing everything he could to make an impact for this Cubs team down the stretch. After he began a rehab assignment on August 15, it was growing increasingly likely that he would pitch in the big leagues this season.
However, Miller will not pitch this season after all. Manager Craig Counsell told reporters that the Cubs are shutting down the 35-year-old for the year. The team just didn’t feel comfortable enough to give him the ball with the team in a postseason race.
The Cubs signed Miller to a two-year deal during the offseason. The front office agreed to a multi-year deal with him because the expectation was that he would miss the entire 2026 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in October of 2025.
But that didn’t stop Miller from attempting to return from the second Tommy John surgery of his career just 11 months later. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough time in the season for the 13-year veteran to contribute meaningful innings out of the Cubs bullpen.
This is obviously tough news for Miller. It felt like he was close to being activated off the injured list. He appeared in 13 games on his rehab assignment and even pitched in back-to-back games earlier this month.
Like any pitcher coming off elbow surgery, though, there were some ups and downs. Miller had a 7.59 ERA, 1.88 WHIP, and 18 strikeouts across 10 ⅔ innings pitched. While the strikeout numbers were encouraging, the high ERA and high WHIP were a bit concerning.
At the end of the day, it was going to be hard to trust Miller in the bullpen in the last few weeks of the regular season. There were going to be growing pains, and the Cubs couldn’t afford to have that in the thick of a Wild Card race.
Miller will now look ahead to the 2027 season.
