ST. LOUIS — In one of Dansby Swanson’s early conversations with new Cubs manager Craig Counsell, the shortstop handed over a sensitive decision to the skipper.
“I was like, ‘Hey, man, thankful you’re here. I want to develop a relationship with you, and with that comes trust,’” Swanson recounted to the Sun-Times. “And I was like, ‘If you see something or want me to take a day, or this, that and the other, I’ll trust you.”
For Swanson, who only missed one game in 2020-2022, that gesture was no small thing – even though, in retrospect, he realized he didn’t fully admit to himself then that he would end up having to take days off.
They still discuss those moves, including Swanson’s stint on the injured list for a sprained right knee earlier this month. But Swanson promised himself he wouldn’t try to fight Counsell’s decisions. If the manager thought a day off would help the shortstop be the best version of himself over the course of the season, Swanson would accept it.
“There’s reasons why,” Swanson said. “It’s not like he just woke up one morning and was like, ‘You know what, Dansby, day down.’ He’s calculated in how he views things and does things. And so I’m just thankful that we have a relationship where we can talk through things.”
Counsell is 53 regular season games into his Cubs tenure. And on Monday, he returns to American Family Field for his first game against the Brewers in Milwaukee since he turned down their offer last fall in favor of a new challenge in Chicago, and a record-setting five-year, $40 million contract.
Now he’s guided the Cubs through a tough first-month schedule and a slew of injuries to some of the team’s best players. Though they’ve hit a skid lately, they enter the series a game above .500.
“It’s important to not lose perspective of that,” Swanson said. “Because even despite [the injuries,] we had a phenomenal April. And May has been a little bit slow, and that’s fine, because we saw four months left to get rolling.
“But I think that that just goes, obviously, to his leadership and trusting his guys and plugging everyone in and putting guys in a position to be good.”
The Brewers lead the division, but when the two teams met at Wrigley Field at the beginning of the month, the Cubs took the series 2-1. What kind of reaction does Counsell expect back in Milwaukee?
“It’s probably going to be the same reaction as it is normally in that stadium,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of Cubs fans there, and there’s going to be a lot of Brewers fans there. So there’ll be some good and some bad.”
Counsell spent the last 17 years with the Brewers as a player, executive and manager. But he hasn’t been one for sentimentality – part of that even-keeled temperament so many of his players and coaches have noted.
“It’s a flaw,” Counsell said when asked about his steady demeanor, win or lose. “I always like to say, your blessings and your curses are really close together.”
Hitting coach Dustin Kelly laughed when he heard that was Counsell’s response.
“The process of how we prepare as a staff and how we talk about the games and talk about opposing teams hasn’t changed,” Kelly said. “When we were winning a bunch in April, it was like, ‘This is why we do it, this is how we do it. And that’s continued on now.
“So it’s not like, ‘Okay, this isn’t working, let’s go change and do something completely different.’ He’s very confident and steady with, ‘This is the way that we’re going to do it, and we’re going to let this roll out for 162 and hopefully into the playoffs.’”
Said lefty Justin Steele: “He’s just super prepared with what’s going on. He’s prepared on a day to day basis for the game, for every situation that could unfold. It just seems like he’s always a step ahead.”
It’s hard to separate a manager’s influence from the hordes of other factors that could affect team performance. What is clear, is that Counsell has already built sturdy relationships.
“We’re both obviously gonna be here for a while, Lord willing,” Swanson said. “And I want to be kind of in lockstep with him in how he views things and how we can build this organization to be a winner. And with that, you’ve got to grow as a manager and a player and be able to have those conversations and all that kind of stuff. It’s important, right? It’s harder to see in baseball than it is in football.”
No one is going to talk about Dansby Swanson and Craig Counsell like Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, or Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. But it isn’t a stretch to say Swanson is the quarterback of this team.
“So I just wanted to say ‘Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it,” Swanson said. “‘I’ll trust you.’”