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MESA, Ariz. — After signing a seven-year, $177 million deal in December to be the centerpiece of the Chicago Cubs lineup, Dansby Swanson entered the final weekend of Cactus League play hitting .059.
It wasn’t just a subpar spring. No one in spring training with 30 or more at-bats had a lower batting average than the new Cubs shortstop.
In his first at-bat Friday in a 5-3 win against the Texas Rangers at Sloan Park, Swanson hit a slow roller to the right side but legged out an infield single thanks to a poor defensive play. He finished the day 1-for-3 to increase his average to .081.
There’s no shortage of stories of players putting up abysmal numbers in spring training and starting the season red-hot and vice versa. Swanson’s slow start shouldn’t be cause for concern — unless it carries over into the season.
Manager David Ross said he wasn’t worried about Swanson’s spring.
“I don’t want to single out Dansby, but everybody in camp is always working on something,” Ross said before Friday’s game. “The thing that stands out to me with a lot of these guys is, ‘Are they recognizing the pitches? Are they taking passes at really good pitches? Do they shut it down on balls out of the zone? Are they taking their walks?’ ”
Swanson had eight walks in his first 14 games as opposed to only two hits in 34 at-bats. Ross theorized it was just a matter of finding the “right mental or physical cue” to get his timing back.
“He’s seeing the baseball, it’s about timing,” Ross said. “The swings are there. I said to him the other day — ‘How many pitches have you fouled straight back on really good swings?’ To me, that’s all timing. Trey (Mancini) has felt a little off, and he said it’s timing.
“They’re all going to go through that throughout the season. The mechanics are going to get a little wonky …. I guess my answer is no, I’m not worried about that, but he’s always working on something.”
Swanson hasn’t taken it to the field with him. He went into the hole in the first inning to throw out Marcus Semien on a fine defensive play. And he hasn’t been the only Cub struggling. Cody Bellinger has a .175 average after an 0-for-4 afternoon.
At the start of spring, Ross called it “a big year for (Bellinger),” adding “he’s got something to prove, but it’s not a pressure type of thing. Asked what mechanical changes Bellinger had to make to return to his MVP form, Ross said Bellinger was working on “getting ready to hit and the way he loads.”
“We’re making sure he’s training that in the weight room and drilling that in the cages,” Ross said.
The Cubs entered the day hitting .240, second-worst among Cactus League teams and sixth-worst in the majors. They need Swanson and Bellinger to heat up soon after starting the season without injured right fielder Seiya Suzuki with no obvious replacement on the roster.
Adding to the urgency, no one has stood out among the third-base candidates, and Willson Contreras is gone, having been replaced by two defensive-minded catchers.
Ross said many of the current players carry a chip on their shoulders for different reasons. Some have been written off, some are trying to show they belong. First baseman Eric Hosmer, who fits the former category, said that’s something everyone has to deal with in their own way.
“Every year brings a different kind of pressure for certain guys — young guys trying to live up to certain things, certain guys trying to get paid and certain guys trying to prove they still have it,” Hosmer said. “Each year presents something a little different.
“I’m excited to do my part and produce, and I think we’ve got a team that can really surprise people and it’s going to be a fun year.”
Hosmer went 2-for-4 with an RBI single, and Marcus Stroman allowed no earned runs in 5⅓ innings in his final tuneup before his opening-day start against the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday, reducing his spring ERA to 0.90.
The Cubs are 15-10 with five Cactus League games remaining entering Friday night. But the finale Tuesday against the White Sox at Sloan Park will be filled with minor-league players, meaning only three games really remain to work out the kinks.
After six weeks in Arizona, the new players have had an opportunity to bond together, a ritual teams have participated in for decades. The players believe the talent and camaraderie can carry them a long way.
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“We have a great dynamic,” Stroman said. “Just the vibe, the atmosphere in the clubhouse is much better than last year because we have a veteran presence now, mixed with the young guys. A great balance of veterans and really talented young guys that can kind of lean on us when we need to be a voice or a helping hand.”
Every team says they’ve bonded every spring. But how do we really know? I covered the 1997 Cubs team that insisted they bonded, then started the season 0-14.
Ross said it’s all a seasonlong process.
“I don’t that just happens in spring training,” he said. “That’s a long-term process as you get to know your family for that season and connect on road trips, on bus rides, on plane rides. But I’ve definitely felt this is a group that has come together very fast in a short amount of time in spring training, the vibe that I get and the vibe that the coaches get and the feedback we’ve gotten from some of the new players.”
Whether that vibe continues to grow over the season remains to be seen, but it has to start somewhere.
“It’s huge,” catcher Tucker Barnhart said. “When you’re invested in your teammates as people and not just as teammates, that puts you in the best position to do something special.
“I think we’re doing a great job of that and I foresee it continuing down that road as we get to Chicago and on into the summer.”
