The Cubs will spend the next four weeks without their starting shortstop, no small thing in the middle of a playoff race.
Dansby Swanson is a critical part of the Cubs’ championship puzzle, playing Gold Glove defense at one of the sport’s premier positions and, if at times quietly, providing ample offensive production. He came into Tuesday fourth on the roster with 18 home runs.
So keeping the team’s best-in-baseball defense humming and one of the top-scoring offenses in the game firing on as many cylinders as possible — all while trying to close the gap with the division-leading Brewers — becomes tougher with Swanson sidelined by an oblique strain.
“It’s a huge deal,” said second baseman Nico Hoerner, who has taken over everyday shortstop duties in Swanson’s absence. “He’s at the heart of everything we do. It shows up in his production on both sides of the ball, but also all the things that you can’t measure: the consistency and the person.
“Obviously, he’s going to stay involved as much as he can. He loves the game. He loves this group. But we’re going to really miss him a lot.”
Yes, it seems Swanson, even while kept from the field, has no plans to stop being an impact for a Cubs team chasing a championship.
Even before he got hurt, there were descriptions of the important conversations teammates were having with Swanson. Now, that will be among his chief contributions while he recovers.
“He’s a guy that I really respect the knowledge of the game that he has,” third baseman Alex Bregman said last week. “We bounce things off of each other over the course of the season, whether it’s about us or our teammates, hitting, defense, pitching, whatever it may be.
“We’re looking to do one thing, and that’s win. Both of us, our whole career, have won. That’s what wakes us up in the morning every single day is to win baseball games.”
It’s enough that Swanson is already being looked at as not just a teammate but something of an addition to the Cubs’ coaching staff.
“He was hurt a couple years ago … he was out for a little bit,” left fielder Ian Happ said Monday. “He turns into another coach. So he’ll be around, he’ll be giving his input.”
On the field, the Cubs will lean on Hoerner, a Gold Glove infielder in his own right who’s played shortstop in the big leagues before, if not too much of it in recent seasons. Pedro Ramirez, a rookie who has impressed with the bat and the glove as a part-timer this season, will shoulder a bigger load as the everyday second baseman for the next few weeks.
“It is different playing short,” Hoerner said. “It’s a harder position. There’s a little more, physically, behind it. … I’m comfortable there. I’m confident in being able to play the position.
“Pedro from early in spring training has shown so much maturity and confidence, a good sense of humor. He’s a guy that seems to do everything on a baseball field at a high level. We’re very confident in him.”
It’s a new wrinkle for the Cubs, who despite nearly being buried by an avalanche of pitching injuries have been at nearly full strength on the position-player side of things for the vast majority of the campaign.
They managed to weather that barrage of pitching injuries, though, and are currently one of the game’s best teams, waking up Tuesday with the fifth best record in the sport after Monday’s thrilling walk-off, extra-inning win over the Crosstown-rival White Sox.
Now, they’ll have to weather Swanson’s absence as they get closer and closer to crunch time: the home stretch of the regular season and the playoffs.
But at least Swanson will still be doing what he can to help the Cubs reach baseball’s mountaintop.
“That’s just who he is,” Hoerner said. “He’s invested in this team and the people on this team. I’m sure it’s incredibly frustrating for him to not be able to be out there. But we all know where his priorities lie, and it’s fun that how he wants to spend his time and energy is with the group.”
