Chicago Cubs bench Dansby Swanson amid ugly team freefall

The Chicago Cubs are in freefall and there doesn’t seem to be much the team can do about it.

More News: Chicago Cubs recall Javier Assad as starting rotation experiences full-on collapse

With a 6-19 record over their last 25 games, the team has fallen from first place in the NL Central Division to fourth, behind the Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Pittsburgh Pirates. If the season were to end today, they would not even make the playoffs.

That’s a pretty prodigious fall from grace for a team expected to do big things this year and one which had even been generating some World Series chatter.

There are many, many potential reasons for this Cubs collapse.

The starting pitching, for one, has been strained by injury and racked by underperformance. As of this writing, the Cubs hold the dubious distinction of having four of five starters posting an ERA of 4.59 or greater.

Maybe the most frustrating issue plaguing this team, however, is their wildly inconsistent offense.

Not one single batter has been exempt from playing the shrinking violet role for long, significant stretches of the season. Some, though, have been out of sorts for excruciatingly long—and team damning—periods of time.

One of those disappointing bats is Dansby Swanson.

The shortstop is batting .180 on the season—and that’s actually deceptively good considering he’s hitting .150 since May 1 with one home run and 5 RBIs.

Benching Dansby Swanson

More News: Chicago Cubs: This trade target could offer ‘best of both worlds’ deadline solution

Well, Craig Counsell and the Cubs have decided to give the struggling Swanson a seat on the bench for Saturday’s day game at Wrigley Field against the San Francisco Giants following an 18-3 drubbing on Friday where the veteran went 0-for-4.

With Swanson sitting, second baseman Nico Hoerner has been moved over to shortstop and Pedro Ramirez will be playing second.

Counsell has done this forced reset with struggling players many times before, most notably with left fielder Ian Happ this season and right fielder Kyle Tucker last year. In Swanson’s case, it could be argued that the move is long overdue.

Despite playing his usual high-end defense, Swanson has been pretty much a guaranteed out for a lineup that is struggling way too much for as good as it should be.

The Swanson/Cubs predicament

The 32-year-old is in the fourth year of a seven-year, $177 million contract and things have never been uglier for the two-time All-Star. Boasting a new, more naturalistic approach to hitting over the offseason, thing have clearly not worked out for him.

Although known to be a streaky hitter, the Cubs shortstop is well past the point where he should’ve snapped out of his doldrums. More drastic measures are clearly needed.

For right now, though, a benching and a forced mental reset are the only potential remedies in Counsell’s medicine chest.

If this doesn’t work out, Chicago will be forced to face the reality that they’ll probably have to keep playing a flatlined bat anyway and just accept the lack of hitting. There are currently no long term backup plans for shortstop and no way to unload the massive salary attached to Swanson.

The post Chicago Cubs bench Dansby Swanson amid ugly team freefall appeared first on ChiCitySports.

Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-bench-dansby-swanson-craig-counsell/