What Dansby Swanson is changing in his search for better offensive production

MESA, Ariz. — Something inside Dansby Swanson was bothering him. The 10-year veteran, a two-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner, wasn’t satisfied with his performance during the 2025 season.

“I felt like I was getting nudged internally,” Swanson said. “I could feel like I needed to do something different. It can be hard to find what that is, who those people are and what that looks like. I was able to make some necessary adjustments in thought processes and all that kind of stuff.”

When Swanson was signed by the Cubs, he was coming off one of the most productive seasons of his career. He posted a 117 wRC+ and a .277 batting average, both career highs, and slugged 25 home runs. But he thought there was more he could do. He wanted to cut down on his swing-and-miss, and the Cubs believed they could help him.

At first, Swanson was able to do that. He had a solid first season with the Cubs, dropping his strikeout rate by 2 percentage points and producing at an above-average level on offense. But his production dropped in 2024, and the swing-and-miss jumped last summer.

“I feel like I just haven’t been what I’ve wanted to be over the last couple of years,” Swanson said. “It felt like the best thing I could do was intentionally change things, whether it was how I was training and some of the things I was doing in the cage. Just really, ultimately, doing things to push myself to get better.”

Swanson’s struggles early last season resulted in being pushed to eighth in the lineup by the end of April. His 128 plate appearances hitting eighth were the second most in any spot in the lineup for him, behind the five-spot. He even started two games batting ninth. The Cubs’ offense was flying high at certain points of the season and was quite deep at times. But still, Swanson wants to prove he deserves to bat higher in the lineup.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell didn’t know if his spot in the lineup was what motivated Swanson to change things up this offseason. “I think he wants to be a better offensive player,” Counsell said. But he likes that the veteran has taken initiative and is looking to change the narrative around his offense.

“It’s an acknowledgment that growth never stops, learning never stops,” Counsell said. “Whether I’ve done it one way and had success, there’s another way for me to have success. Different training methods could unlock some things.”

Swanson didn’t want to get into details on what changed, but he said it was to improve on offense, and he adjusted his work in the weight room. Unlike last year, when he underwent core surgery for a sports hernia, he had a healthy winter that allowed him to train at a high level. According to hitting coach Dustin Kelly, Swanson is looking to lean into his athleticism a bit more at the plate.

“Really, just keeping him athletic,” Kelly said. “Trying not to get too rigid or stuck in a certain way of doing it. You watch him play shortstop and see how he moves and flows and how everything falls into place. That’s kind of the approach we’re taking. Keeping him moving and flowing through the setup, the leg kick and the swing.”

Kelly said it’s not an overhaul with his mechanics, and most people won’t notice a difference.

“There’s a little setup change,” Kelly said. “Just creating a little more posture in his setup and keeping the bat a tiny bit flatter. It’s going to help him move a little bit better.”

The goal appears to be to avoid those downswings that occurred over the last two seasons. Last year, in particular, there were a pair of extended slumps that largely negated the positives for Swanson and kept him from having a strong season. This despite the fact that, according to Statcast, his barrel rate (11.7%) and hard-hit rate (47.7%) were the highest of his career.

The chart shows two extreme dips in production from Swanson. Both were the worst of his Cubs career, and outside of his first two seasons in the big leagues, he’d never had two extended stretches hitting such lows over the course of a season.

“Hopefully, just shortening some of those curves of the season,” Kelly said of the goal of the work Swanson is putting in. “Flattening it out. There’s times he has great months and other times when he struggles for a month or so. Hopefully we’ll smooth out some of those lows, and hopefully they don’t get at the bottom as much.”

lot of the numbers under the hood suggest Swanson isn’t on a steep decline. But Swanson and the coaching staff would like to address a rise in swing-and-miss. Swanson’s swinging strike rate jumped to 14.3% last summer, the highest of his career. This was largely caused by a dramatic drop in his contact rate on pitches out of the zone. Swanson made contact with pitches he swung at out of the zone 38.3% of the time. His previous low in that department came in 2021, when he posted a 47.6% rate. That’s a significant drop in contact rate, which led to a higher strikeout rate and more swing-and-miss in general.

Time will tell whether these adjustments work. Swanson, who became a father for the first time this winter, turned 32 just days before he arrived in camp last week. It would be natural if he were beginning his decline. But players are always fighting against time, and changes in modern player development can allow them to do so.

In his search to correct what has gone wrong and to ensure he avoids those deep slumps, Swanson believes he may have found a path back to offensive success.

“I feel like I’m in a really good place,” Swanson said. “That’s the cliche of everyone after every offseason. But there was just something different about this one. I’m not talking daughter-related. But personally and careerwise, some things started clicking a little differently than in years past.”