'Be yourself': Swanson sees stellar results after mindset shift

CHICAGO -- Dansby Swanson admitted to letting himself get too caught up in the results and the numbers that have stacked up against him over the past few weeks. Over the past few days, the Cubs' shortstop did what he could do to shift his state of mind once he took the field.

“You forget that your main job is to just show up as yourself and be yourself,” Swanson said. “That was my message to myself the last couple days: ‘Just come out here and play free and do what I was gifted to do.’”

In a 5-0 victory over the Brewers on Sunday, Swanson issued a reminder as to why he is the anchor of the Cubs’ infield and one of the leaders for the ballclub. One day after being presented with his second career Gold Glove Award, Swanson made a pair of slick plays at shortstop. He also pulled out of a prolonged power outage with a home run.

Swanson’s performance backed a stellar six-inning outing from righty Javier Assad and helped the North Siders move into a virtual tie with Milwaukee atop the National League Central. Beyond that, it was the type of showing that allowed the veteran shortstop to relax his shoulders a bit and feel like maybe the page has been turned on his recent slump.

“When you're struggling a little bit at the plate,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said, “good results, helping your team win, taking a really good swing and getting rewarded for it, it just feels good. It’s a weight off your shoulders, for sure. I’m happy for Dansby. He’s so, so important to us.”

With a runner on third and two outs in the first inning, Milwaukee’s Willy Adames sent a pitch from Assad into the hole between short and third. Swanson ranged to his right, snaring the ball with a backhand grab in the left-field grass and quickly shifting to his feet to get off a one-hop throw to first baseman Michael Busch for the out.

It was an acrobatic feat that snuffed out the possibility of early momentum for Milwaukee.

“That’s a big play,” Counsell said.

Swanson’s next gem arrived in the fourth inning, when Brice Turang chopped a pitch up the middle with one out and a runner on first. This time, the shortstop hustled to his left and collected the sharp grounder while sliding behind second base. Swanson got the throw off in ample time to help Assad hang another zero on his line.

In the sixth, Swanson ended a drought of 41 plate appearances without a homer by connecting with a 98.6 mph sinker at the bottom of the zone from reliever Thyago Vieira. The deep fly carried out to left-center, giving Swanson his fourth homer of the year.

Swanson has played long enough to know that offensive lulls happen, but the shortstop did not deny that the homer offered some mental relief.

“Yeah,” Swanson said. “I mean, we’re all still human, right?”

Heading into Sunday’s game, Swanson was batting .186/.231/.244 with a 30.8% strikeout rate and 5.5% walk rate in 91 plate appearances across his previous 24 games. That came after a strong showing out of the gates for Swanson, who hit .303/.415/.576 with a 24.4% K-rate and 14.6% walk rate in the season’s first 10 games.

Lately, Swanson has seen an uptick in sliders from opposing pitchers, which Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly said led to the shortstop being “caught in-between” with his fastball timing. Kelly said hitters in that mode can fall into a pattern of “chasing the shape” of pitches, meaning their initial reaction can impact their posture in the box and, in turn, their swing mechanics.

“With Dansby, he has such a track record that we can go back to,” Kelly said. “We’re always trying to just maintain a lot of his movements and some of the things he’s working on approach-wise. Some of the guys that have that track record, you try not to get too far away from what they’re really good at.”

Overall, Swanson has had a similar hard-hit rate this season (40.2% entering Sunday) compared to 2023 (39.7%), along with similar marks in barrel rate (11.0% in ‘24 vs. 10.9% in ‘23). That quality of contact just has not translated into consistent results, especially as Swanson’s swing-and-miss rate climbed in recent games.

The shortstop felt like Sunday was a big step forward.

“I’m starting to kind of feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, there I am,’” Swanson said. “It’s a good feeling.”