CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer noticed Dansby Swanson wearing a cowboy hat inside a private reception room at the Sheraton Grand hotel. At the start of the team’s annual winter fan festival, Hoyer interrupted an interview to remind reporters, “He’s from suburban Atlanta!” As Hoyer walked away, the All-Star shortstop raised his voice, “You wish you looked this good!”
That is the type of relationship Swanson has with both Hoyer and general manager Carter Hawkins, who knew Swanson’s family while growing up in Georgia and also played college baseball at Vanderbilt. It is not just the fans at Cubs Convention who have noticed how cautiously the Hoyer/Hawkins front office sometimes operates.
“They probably get sick of me calling,” Swanson said Friday.
It’s safe to assume Cubs executives know what Swanson thinks of Cody Bellinger, the former MVP who needed only one pillow contract/comeback season to become a fan favorite at Wrigley Field, a magnetic presence in the clubhouse and a great example for other hitters. Swanson signed a seven-year, $177 million contract last offseason with the expectation the Cubs would continue making big investments in players like Bellinger.
“We text here and there,” Swanson said. “First of all, if I had any (update), I couldn’t say anything. Second of all, I get it. He’s going through free agency. I’ve been through it. We have a good friendship and a relationship. A lot of it is just checking in and seeing how he’s doing, how the offseason is going, offering any advice and things of that nature for free agency just because I have been through it so recently.
“He’s obviously an awesome player and we’d love to have him back. I think that’s about as clear as day. So hopefully, we can make that happen.”
Swanson followed along as the Cubs did not make a move at the Winter Meetings or during the holiday break. Shohei Ohtani, as expected, chose the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Cubs bowed out of the Yoshinobu Yamamoto negotiations. The Cubs did not have the appetite or the players (or maybe some combination of both) to trade for Juan Soto.
Dansby Swanson has arrived at #CubsCon 🤠 pic.twitter.com/miIVcjbhFP
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) January 12, 2024
This was not the next step that Cubs players envisioned after being eliminated from playoff contention on the second-to-last day of the season. Hoyer’s stunning decision to fire David Ross and make Craig Counsell the highest-paid manager in the game did not foreshadow a flurry of moves. Outside of a few minor-league deals and a waiver claim, the Cubs crept into the middle of January without spending any money on a free agent or making a trade.
“The Falcons weren’t any good, so it was really hard for me to focus my attention elsewhere,” Swanson said. “That made it even harder, sitting there kind of like, ‘Hey, when is something going to happen?’ But at the end of the day, they have a plan. They know what they want. They know what they’re looking for. The market overall has been slow.
“Other than the billion dollars spent out West, there really hasn’t been a ton (of action). Yeah, we would have loved to have had Ohtani, right? You would have loved to have had Yamamoto. You would have loved to have gotten Soto. But there’s a lot of things within that that shouldn’t really get your frustration level up.”
Be patient because Bellinger is represented by agent Scott Boras, who typically moves at a different pace and tries to push the negotiations around his top clients onto the ownership level, which is a nonstarter with Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts. Still, Cubs officials haven’t ruled out re-signing Bellinger or pivoting to Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman, another Boras client.
Swanson believes Shōta Imanaga, the Japanese pitcher who just signed a four-year, $53 million contract with the Cubs, will be a valuable part of the rotation. Swanson says Michael Busch can be a left-handed force with the consistent at-bats the Dodgers couldn’t afford to give him in their lineup. Swanson sees Yency Almonte, the other player acquired in that trade with the Dodgers, as a plug-and-play reliever for Counsell’s bullpen.
“They know that we need to get better,” Swanson said. “We will get better. You’re starting to see that recently. Some things are starting to fall in place. And I think that it’s only going to continue to grow from there.”
(Photo of Dansby Swanson and Cody Bellinger: Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)