It wasn’t too long ago that Chicago Cubs ace Justin Steele was a breakout performer who took Major League Baseball by storm.

After posting a 3.18 ERA across 24 starts in 2022, the left-hander took his game to the next level the following season, inserting himself right into the NL Cy Young conversation with his first career All-Star selection.

He finished that year with a 3.06 ERA across 30 starts, coming in fifth in the NL Cy Young voting that announced he was one of the game’s best pitchers.

Since that point, Steele has been viewed as the ace of this franchise, which is why his absence is being heavily felt by Chicago following his season-ending elbow surgery that created a massive void in their rotation.

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But Steele is making sure that the current breakout stars on the Cubs aren’t going unnoticed, with him hyping up both Cade Horton and Matt Shaw on social media to bring further attention to what the star duo has done this year.

Starting first with Horton, Steele made sure to shout out his fellow pitcher who is in the midst of doing some truly incredible things. Horton has put together a stretch that has not been seen in franchise history, which has skyrocketed him right to the top of the NL Rookie of the Year conversation.

Beginning the season as one of Chicago’s top prospects, not even the most optimistic person would have predicted that Horton would be this good, with him owning a 2.88 ERA across 18 appearances (17 starts) thus far in 2025. But it’s really what he’s done after the All-Star break that is being overlooked.

Horton has a ridiculous 0.49 ERA across his seven starts, giving up just two runs on 18 hits in 37 innings pitched. That is an incredible stretch for any pitcher, let alone a rookie, and Steele is making sure more people start talking about it.

As for Shaw, he is in a similar boat to his fellow rookie where what he’s been doing in the second half of the season has largely been not talked about, as the 23-year-old third baseman has started looking like a completely different player.

Slashing .298/.343/.691 with nine of his 11 total home runs this season coming in the 34 games following the Midsummer Classic, Shaw’s recent run has backed up why he was considered such a highly-touted prospect when coming up the pipeline.

Steele made sure to give Shaw a shoutout on social media, as well, drawing attention to what the young third baseman is doing immediately after he gave props to his fellow pitcher.

Both Horton and Shaw came into the season being mentioned as possible NL Rookie of the Year winners, but when the duo began slowly, they started disappearing from that conversation. However, with just over a month left in the regular season, that has completely changed.

There’s a good chance Horton could take home the award if he keeps up this current level of play, and if Shaw continues to perform in the manner he has in the second half, he could play spoiler for his teammate.

All of this is a good sign for the Cubs, who put a lot of faith and trust into these two prospects becoming impact players at the big league level this season. And since Horton and Shaw are 24 and 23 years old respectively, they are going to be key pieces of this franchise for a long time.

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