MLB 2017: One prediction for each team

Chicago Cubs: Jason Heyward comes closer to living up to his contract

One of the alleged reasons for Jason Heyward picking the Cubs over the St. Louis Cardinals was his desire to play for a team where he wouldn’t be “The Man.” While that same pressure may not be on him with the Cubs, signing for $184 million pretty much guarantees massive expectations regardless of place in the batting order.

In his first year with the Cubs, Heyward slashed an ugly .230/.306/.325 with only seven home runs. He also stole only 11 bases and didn’t have a massive impact defensively in right field. Everyone who thought Heyward would struggle to live up to his massive contract can point to last season as a colossal “I told you so” moment.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon tried all year to downplay his new right fielder’s struggles, calling Heyward unlucky and hiding him at the bottom of the order. Unfortunately, luck played no part in Heyward’s measly .266 batting average on balls in play. His swing was off all year, leaving him with a below-average exit velocity of 88.25 mph. He also had a career-high soft-contact rate of 27.0 percent. His hard-contact rate of 26.4 percent matched his career-low from 2014 where he also slugged below .400.

Heyward is hard at work this offseason tweaking his swing. The early results look promising, and Heyward has had success in his career tinkering with his swing. His new swing looks more relaxed, losing the bat wrap that may have slowed down his swing path last year. If Heyward keeps his hands loose and doesn’t press as much, he’ll begin seeing better results.