Dansby Swanson’s fix for May slump is to ‘create a better way for me to actually see the ball’

PITTSBURGH — As Dansby Swanson tried to explain what he was working on, he understood it almost sounded ridiculous. After working to lean into his athleticism in the offseason and having a solid start to the season, the veteran shortstop has had a May to forget.

“There’s a way I get in the box and create a better way for me to actually see the ball,” Swanson said. “I know it sounds like, ‘Duh.’ But there’s all kinds of ways to see. There’s different ways to see better. So it was finding a different perspective to see a little better.”

Swanson compared it to how sometimes people are taught to shoot a rifle with one eye open and other times with both. However it needs to be framed, it was as simple as Swanson has not been picking up pitches early enough. Especially breaking balls.

Swanson had a 124 wRC+ with a 16.4% walk rate in March and April. In May (through Wednesday’s game), he has put up a 30 wRC+ and 6.8% walk rate. Instead of laying off pitches outside the zone, his chase rate has gone from 21.5% to 32.1% as pitchers increased the breaking balls usage against him from 36.5% to 47.9%. And his hard-hit rate has plummeted.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what Swanson was doing wrong. He and his hitting coaches knew the problem.

“We understand he’s getting a ton of sliders down and away,” hitting coach Dustin Kelly said. “He’s chasing. Why is he chasing those? He’s not looking down and away, but the body is not really allowing him to move and shut down on those pitches.”

Obviously, seeing the ball matters. Swanson can see; his eyesight isn’t an issue. But he just wasn’t picking up the ball early enough.

“I’m right-eye dominant,” Swanson said. “That’s my back eye. What can I do to get my right eye to always be on the ball?”

After Swanson spent much of the offseason not focusing on mechanics and just trying to feel how his body moves better, Kelly says they’re now building upon that base. The struggles forced them to.

“Really focus on setup and what your position is,” Kelly said. “How are you moving to pitches? Maybe changing some of the sights. When looking for a pitch in, what does that mean? It doesn’t mean swinging at everything in, just starting on the inner line to stay on the plate.”

Kelly said they’ve been working on various things in the cage and batting practice and have started bringing them into the game. Swanson is a bit wider with his base, trying to stabilize his lower half and also slightly lowering his leg kick.

If they can get Swanson to see the breaking balls away better, recognize them earlier, a lot should fall into place.

“They’re working away on him so much and trying to X the corner,” Kelly said. “There’s not a slug out there; there’s some chase and obviously some swing-and-miss. So, we’re getting his body in a place where that pitch doesn’t look as enticing.”

They both feel like it’s starting to work.

“Wednesday night, felt much more like myself,” Swanson said. “More along the lines of what I was doing earlier in the year when I was doing much better, just in terms of pitch selection, hitting balls to different parts of the field and taking my walks. It was a promising sign for me.”

Swanson had two hits Wednesday, including a double. In Thursday’s 7-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, he laid off sliders away from Paul Skenes to draw an early walk (his strikeout against Skenes was on a changeup at the very bottom of the zone) and, in general, avoided chase. The results didn’t come, but it’s a step he needs to take to find a hot stretch.

Swanson has always been a streaky player at the plate. He tried to eliminate the lulls with his work in the offseason, but it has yet to solve the problem. So the work continues.

“At the end of the day, it’s not a question of whether I can hit spin,” Swanson said. “It’s more that I was swinging at all the bad ones and taking the good ones. The ones I was seeing were the bad ones. Maybe that’s a product of not having my eyes fully on the lane of the pitches.”

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