The last time Justin Steele was at major league game of consequence, he had to walk out.

“The Rangers won the World Series that game and I left early, and it was just like I didn’t really care,” Steele said. “You’re looking through a different lens. You have a little bit different perspective on things.”

The end to last season is what gave him that outlook. The Cubs, of course, finished the season a game out of the playoffs behind the Diamondbacks, the eventual NL Champions. The Cubs lost 6 of 7 to Arizona down the stretch and 3 of those losses were decided by a run or less. A break or bounce in any of those 6 losses and it’s the Cubs playing in October.

“We all realize how close we were last year and one game away and you could see what happens with that one game,” Steele said.

Now Steele is out to make sure that the next time he’s at a playoff game, he’s playing in it. He’ll have the opportunity to set the Cubs on that path Thursday night in Arlington when he faces those same Rangers to open the season.

Steele will do that by being himself and not letting the moment get to him. Steele is a simple person; he’s reserved and thoughtful in his craft.

“There’s a real value in how Justin simplifies the game,” Counsell said this spring. “He creates conviction for himself, doesn’t allow a lot of outside noise into his equation out there and that works.

“Sometimes we think, ‘Oh, that’s easy to do.’ It’s not that easy to do.”

Can he really do that with the hoopla that surrounds Opening Day and a ring ceremony for the Rangers in their home ballpark?

“I’ll probably just treat it like another game,” Steele said matter-of-factly. “That’s usually how I go about things. Probably just change up my routine a little bit, but nothing too major.”

It’s an example for other young pitchers in the Cubs organization. Sixty percent of the Opening Day rotation is made up of players that have spent their entire career in the organization. Jordan Wicks and Steele were drafted and developed by the team and Javier Assad was signed as an international free agent in 2015. That doesn’t include Kyle Hendricks, who was acquired in a trade as a minor leaguer and spent time in the Cubs farm system, too.

Steele is the ultimate example for Assad and Wicks and a plethora of other young pitching prospects that are knocking on the doorstep, hoping to follow in his footsteps.

“I think it’s awesome because it’s just the chemistry you have with those guys,” Wicks said. “You spend a lot of time with them in the minors, you see them around a lot. They’ve been here for years, and I think it shows a lot of credit to the organization, too, as well as the pitching development.”

That pitching development will be tested this season. Instead of jumping in the deep end in free agency to augment the team’s rotation, Jed Hoyer and the Cubs brass will trust the pipeline of young arms to help them win.

That all starts Thursday night with Steele — even if he’s not looking at it in that grand manner.  

“For me, all I can do is go out there and do my job every fifth day and do the best I can to give the team a chance to win,” Steele said. “I feel like if I do that every time, I’m in a good spot.”