Cubs Pay Heavily To Land Their Shortstop, Dansby Swanson

The Cubs may not be relevant next September but at least their fans will know they’re trying.

A year and a half after they stripped the payroll by trading away Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Baez, the Cubs are signing free agent shortstop Dansby Swanson to a seven-year, $177 million contract, per reports.

Swanson, the last of four top-tier shortstops still on the market, was being widely pursued by teams that had missed signing Carlos Correa, Trea Turner and Xander Bogaerts. The Cubs had targeted Swanson from the start of free agency and didn’t let the rising tide of the early signings detour them.

Tom Ricketts and President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer are giving Swanson the second-biggest contract in team history — behind Jason Heyward’s eight-year, $184 million deal — despite already having a shortstop whose value was judged to be 4.5 rWAR last season. He was a first-round pick for Arizona in 2015, helped Atlanta win the World Series in 2021 and is heading into his age-29 season.

Swanson’s 5.7 rWAR was only slightly better than what Nico Hoerner produced but there will be no controversy, as Hoerner long ago indicated a willingness to move back to second base, where he had played alongside Javier Baez. They will join outfielders Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ as the foundational players on the team lined up behind starting pitchers Jameson Taillon, Marcus Stroman and, if he’s healthy, Kyle Hendricks.

The Cubs set a franchise mark with an Opening Day payroll of $203.1 million in 2019 and opened last season with a payroll of $143.4 million. They currently project to be at $178.6 in 2023 but will likely make a few more moves. The most glaring need is at catcher, as they lost Willson Contreras to free agency and haven’t taken on a replacement.

Swanson becomes the first nine-figure signing by the Cubs since the Heyward signing before the 2016 season. Some wondered if the Ricketts family was still willing to swim in the deep end but the Swanson signing answers that question.

The Swanson deal is the sixth largest this off-season in terms of both total value and length. It is only slightly bigger than the deal the Mets gave Brandon Nimmo (eight years, $162,000) and only about half of Correa’s deal with San Francisco (13 years, $350 million).

The middle-infield combination of Swanson and Hoerner should be a significant upgrade for the Cubs, who ranked 10th in the NL with 731 runs allowed last season. But Swanson will carry a bigger load in resurrecting a lineup that was 11th with only 4.06 runs scored per game.

Swanson entered free agency fresh from a season in which he hit 25 home runs, stole 18 bases and struck out 182 times, all career highs. It was a timely development for him, as it set him up for a big reward after declining the Braves’ best offer on a contract extension that would have kept him off the market.

The good news for fourth-year Cubs manager David Ross is that his new shortstop profiles as one of those rare offensive players who can adjust his profile to meet his team’s needs.

Swanson batted leadoff and played second base when Vanderbilt won the NCAA Tournament in 2014. He had a .411 on-base percentage that season, hitting three home runs in 72 games.

Moved into the No. 3 spot as the shortstop in ’15, Swanson delivered 15 home runs for a team that came within one victory of repeating as champs.

He hit ninth for the Braves team that beat Houston in the 2021 World Series. But after Freddie Freeman, Jorge Soler and Jorge Soler moved on, Swanson was used mostly as the No. 2 hitter in 2022. He seemed to sometimes sell out for power, contributing to his strikeout rate increasing.

Because of both his contract and the team’s lack of star power, Swanson will be a major focus for Cubs fans and the Chicago media. He should be ready to step into the role as Hoyer steps up his efforts to build a contending team around him.