Dansby Swanson’s RBI Binge Puts Him Rarefied Air Among Several Legends

Not all that long ago, certain segments of Cubs fandom were begging for Dansby Swanson to be benched or even released. It’s a good thing Craig Counsell doesn’t let social media influence his decisions, because Swanson’s exploits would be drawing loads more attention were it not for Pete Crow-Armstrong‘s heroics over the last month. Interestingly enough, both players now find themselves alongside Lou Gehrig and other legends after putting up incredible numbers at the plate.

With eight more runs driven in on Wednesday, Swanson now has 26 RBI over his last 10 games. Per Jesse Rogers, the only other players to do that since RBI became an official stat in 1920 are Mel Ott (1929), Gehrig (1930 and ’31), Jimmie Foxx (1933), and Joe DiMaggio (1939). Is anyone else surprised that Cubs great Hack Wilson isn’t on that list despite driving in a record 191 runs in 1930? Perhaps not as surprised as when you realize Swanson drove in runs in just five of those 10 games.

Crow-Armstrong turned things around with some mechanical tweaks that allowed him to remain in swing mode without having to actually swing at everything. For Swanson, it’s less about changing anything and more about finding the right feel to where he can stay consistent. That’s as much a mental thing as it is physical.

“You can go into the cage and you can try and fix your swing,” he explained to reporters after Monday night’s game. “If you go to the driving range, you can go there and try to fix your swing. It’s also nice to be able to get to the point where you’re like, ‘I’m not in there trying to fix anything. I’m in there just trying to like groove my swing to repeat the same good thing every time.”

X user @CubsCreator (real name Brian) shared back on June 24, right near the start of Swanson’s RBI binge, that he saw the shortstop having a heart-to-heart with hitting coach John Mallee in the batting cage while enjoying the W Club. Rogers replied that Brian was “100 percent onto something,” and Swanson added a little color recently.

“I may have had a lot of success in this game, but I still like being coached,” Swanson explained. “I still sometimes like having my hand held and walked through with, and [Mallee] was just the one that has been doing it for me lately. But all guys, they’ve also been awesome and positive and consistent and supportive, and I think they all put their heads together and kind of just said, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do.’

“And Males was just the one that was able to kind of relay the message to get it through to me, and it’s obviously made such a difference.”

Swanson also talked about being convicted in something and being held to a higher standard, and how Mallee has stayed on top of him in a constructive manner to keep him focused. It’s been easy for folks to criticize Swanson because he came to town on a big contract and hasn’t played like a superstar in Chicago, but those who expected some sort of transcendent icon were bound to be disappointed. What the Cubs have is an elite defensive shortstop who’s going to put up league-average offensive production with 20-ish homers every year.

He’s on pace for the greatest power output of his career, with 16 homers and a .221 ISO heading into the holiday weekend. His trifecta in Wednesday’s 23-3 romp over the Padres puts him at 180 career homers, all but one of which have come as a shortstop (he has one pinch-hit dinger). Swanson now sits fifth in National League history for homers by a shortstop, just eight behind Troy Tulowitzki and 15 behind Barry Larkin. He’s still 48 behind Jimmy Rollins for second, and there’s a strong likelihood that he’ll get there before his contract expires at the end of the 2029 season.

The top spot, however, is going to remain safe. Ernie Banks hit 277 of his 512 career homers while playing short, putting him 50 ahead of Rollins. It would be pretty cool to have Cubs in the top two positions, but we can worry about crossing that bridge when we come to it. For now, let’s revel in the fact that Swanson is just one of several Cubs who’ve come alive at the plate following a prolonged stretch of futility.

He and PCA are bound to cool off, but maybe that means we’ll finally see the offense level out into more of the steady force we thought it would be at the start of the season.