Chicago Cubs: What to do about Dansby Swanson?

The Chicago Cubs have a number of issues to deal with as they languish through a 2-9 record over their last eleven games and find themselves in second place in the NL Central Division after being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers at home.

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A battered and strained pitching staff is a problem, of course. Pete Crow-Armstrong’s mental disengagement is another problem. Then, there’s just the general doldrums of the offense, which cannot seem to get runners on base—and, when they do, they leave them stranded.

But nobody has been as consistently “off” with the bat as Dansby Swanson.

Dansby Swanson is flatlining

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On the season, the 32-year-old shortstop is hitting an ugly .291 with an OPS of .653. In May, though, his numbers have been especially feeble as he’s slashing .156/.206/.234 through May 21. His 4 home runs and 27 RBIs projects to about 14 homers and 90 ribbies over the full 162-game season, which would be excellent, but things aren’t trending that way. In the month of May, he’s only hit one home run with 4 RBIs so far.

Robert Murray, MLB Insider for Fansided, recently rubbed salt in an open Dansby wound by pointing out just how much money the Cubs still owe the veteran on his 7-year contract:

Breakdown of Dansby Swanson’s seven-year, $177 million contract with the Chicago Cubs, per source:

Signing bonus: $7 million.
2023: $13 million.
2024: $25 million.
2025: $27 million.
2026: $27 million.
2027: $27 million.
2028: $26 million.
2029: $25 million.

The practical question when it comes to Swanson, though, centers around what to do about his struggles.

What to do about the Swanson funk?

Trading him is not an option since his contract is so fat relative to his offensive stats being so thin. It would also be morally disastrous to have him be a $25-$26 million bench reserve.

It could be possible to switch Nico Hoerner to shortstop and then have Matt Shaw or Pedro Ramirez take up second base. That would require some big-time roster reconfiguration and, again, a realization from the Cubs that they’re paying an average AAV of $26 million for a bench-riding defensive replacement.

At this point, and probably for the remainder of his contract, the Cubs pretty much have to play him and just hope for the best. Thankfully, his defense is still top notch and there’s still a chance that this deep funk he’s currently in is just another, albeit longer than normal, slump for a notoriously streaky hitter.

Swanson garnered headlines this past offseason for adapting a new and more instinctual approach to the plate in hopes of providing more consistent offensive output. It may be time to stop that and go back to what was working only marginally well, at times.

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