Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson heating up by simplifying approach at plate
PHILADELPHIA — Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson needed to get out of his own head.
When he was in a slump, Swanson used to watch endless videos in an effort to identify the problem. A player who stands out defensively because of his tremendous instincts and reactions had become too mechanical at the plate.
During the offseason, Swanson worked on mindfulness. He wanted to quiet the self-created noise in his head by simplifying his approach at the plate and avoiding tinkering.
‘‘The biggest thing is trusting myself and getting out of a space of overthinking [and] just going out there and really just trusting my ability,’’ Swanson told the Sun-Times.
After finishing with a 105 weighted runs created-plus in 2023 — 100 represents the major-league average — Swanson finished at 97 in 2024 and 99 last season. A member of the vaunted class of free-agent shortstops in 2022, the Cubs had bet on Swanson’s mix of athleticism and defense aging well through his early 30s.
The underlying numbers didn’t portend an immediate decline, but Swanson — who has had four seasons of 20 or more home runs in his career — thought he was leaving some production on the table. To be the best version of himself, he had to do some serious self-evaluation in the offseason.
‘‘I’m a pretty stubborn person, so that took its own work,’’ he said. ‘‘It was about removing myself a little bit.’’
That required Swanson to overhaul his view of hitting. He no longer could be beholden to expected numbers or obsessed with watching videos of his at-bats and moved away from drill-based work, which he thought was taking away from his natural ability as a hitter.
So far, the results haven’t shown up in the box score for Swanson. Entering the Cubs’ game Tuesday against the Phillies, he was batting .173/.323/.365.
Unswayed by the lack of success, Swanson said he has to trust his new approach will lead to success sooner or later. He looks to his walk rate — an unsustainably high 18.5% — as evidence that he’s heading down the right path.
Swanson has been a streaky hitter throughout his career, so he’s staying disciplined and avoiding the temptation of searching too hard for answers.
‘‘As athletes, we want to be good so bad that sometimes that can almost work against us,’’ he said. ‘‘At times for me, that’s been a thing where it’s like: ‘I didn’t hit this or get a hit today by doing it this way. That means tomorrow I need to do something different in order to be good.’
‘‘Sometimes you need to make it really elementary, and that’s kind of what I’ve been able to do over the last week or so. And I think the more you vocalize it and talk about it and speak your mind to people, it helps them hold you accountable to those same principles. That’s been the focus.”
In his last six games entering Tuesday, Swanson was batting .250/.423/.600, including an opposite-field homer Monday. Returning to a more fundamental approach has been good for him as he looks to avoid the dry spells he seemingly endures every season.
Decluttering his mind by talking with coaches and jotting down his thoughts on paper has made him more confident in his plan at the plate than in years past.
‘‘Being able to have those conversations [with people] allows for the clarity to come,’’ Swanson said. ‘‘You can work your way through the problems instead of holding it in your head and going down your own rabbit hole.’’