Cubs’ Dansby Swanson battles .183 batting average glare

Dansby Swanson said he can’t stop thinking about his batting average after a rough stretch that includes a .183 mark for the season and a .151 average in May, as manager Craig Counsell acknowledged the slump has tested him while Swanson insists he’ll keep comp

Dansby Swanson can take the field and still feel it: not the crowd, not the lights, but the numbers.

He’s a steady. elite presence at shortstop for the Cubs. the kind who can flash “insane defensive plays. ” as one description puts it. He can be the veteran in the clubhouse. But when he steps into a batter’s box. the batting average he’s struggling with appears everywhere—on the scoreboard. on the screens. in the constant visual reminders of what he’s not doing at the plate.

“They are what they are,” Swanson said in a conversation with the Sun-Times on Sunday. “For me, it is really a lot of the mental side of moving past the [fact that the] numbers are what the numbers are and [remembering] that doesn’t define me or what I’m capable of as a player.”

He described how the information follows him even in his own home ballpark. where Wrigley Field has added informational video boards. “There’s so many other ways you can provide value that’s not just in the batter’s box. ” Swanson said. “It’s just that’s the one we always look at, unfortunately, and it’s everywhere you go. When you get into a batter’s box, it’s posted everywhere.”.

Swanson’s season batting average is .183. The month of May has been especially difficult, when he hit just .151 with a .448 OPS.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell doesn’t downplay it. “He’s been in a rough patch here for a while,” Counsell said. “He’s a better hitter than what he’s been showing. … You go through this stuff. This one’s probably a little worse than he’s gone through. and that causes you to ask some questions as the player.”.

He added that the focus isn’t quitting. “But he’s not going to stop competing.”

Swanson is not new to success. He is a two-time All Star. Last season, his 24 home runs were three off a career high. Defense has long been his signature—Gold Glove defense at shortstop—but the Cubs have also expected him to do more offensively than what his current batting line is showing.

The frustration has surfaced at times, too. On Saturday in St. Louis, Swanson was disgusted by a bases-loaded strikeout. He threw his bat, helmet and batting gloves to the ground around home plate.

Even after the moment passes, the reminder stays.

“You can’t get away from it,” Swanson said when describing how hard it is to shake off poor numbers. “The cliche answer would be, ‘Yeah, you get over them.’ But at the same time, it’s hard. They’re everywhere,” he said. “It’s hard. It is. We’re all human. We all want to do great, we all want to be great. We all want to prove ourselves every single day.”.

He said the job is learning to hold two ideas at once: acceptance without surrender. “Sometimes you’ve got to accept it: ‘It is what it is. It doesn’t define me. It doesn’t define my worth as a player.’ But also with the sense of urgency of. ‘Yeah. you want to get things right. too.’ It’s quite the unique blend.”.

The questions, in other words, are unavoidable—because his job is on display in real time.

So what can he control while the average lags? For Swanson, the answer starts with still playing his game defensively, the one that has earned him elite status. He is taking pride in his career-high walk rate of 13.3 percent, a number that has helped him rank second on the team in runs scored.

There are other ways to contribute, he said. “Really,” Swanson said, “I’m just grinding my way through it to provide whatever I can to help us win games, because that’s ultimately the end goal.”

But he also understands the expectation—especially with a contract that pays him $28 million. A player at that price can’t rely on defense and walks alone.

Instead of treating this slump as a solo fight, Swanson said he draws motivation from the clubhouse. “The cool part about so many guys in this clubhouse is no one settles for anything,” he said. “People understand what they’re capable of and are always working toward their peak. toward their ceiling. toward whatever they deem is the best version of themselves. It’s almost like no one’s ever satisfied with what any number looks like.”.

The reality is simpler than the mental gymnastics: Swanson’s numbers won’t change until his approach does.

Until he starts hitting with more consistency, he’ll keep staring at that low batting average on every scoreboard in every stadium he walks into—except now, the staring isn’t just about the display.

It’s also about the pressure to fix what the screens won’t stop showing.

Dansby Swanson Cubs Wrigley Field batting average slump Craig Counsell Gold Glove MLB