Cubs Rumors: Dansby Swanson bullying, Javy Baez trade, prospect rankings
By Mark Powell
Cubs Rumors: Dansby Swanson kept Jed Hoyer from selling
Just a few weeks prior to the MLB trade deadline, the Chicago Cubs looked like surefire sellers, and it was tough to blame Jed Hoyer and Co. Chicago sat 7.5 games back in the NL Central and 6.5 games back in the NL Wild Card race as of early June.
Yet, Hoyer offered Cubs veteran leader Dansby Swanson, as well as manager David Ross, something he failed to provide in past seasons — time. And with that time, Swanson and Co. flipped the script, keeping a consistent dialogue with Hoyer and the front office, as well.
“My thing was, you can’t just turn it on and off, when you want to win,” Swanson said, per The Athletic. “If we want to be good, the expectation needs to be that we’re going to win. Just because it’s not going purely as planned this year, you get to a deadline, (you can’t just say) we’re done with the year.”
As Swanson expressed, how is any team supposed to build momentum year over year if the front office trades away any and all assets each July?
“The message still has to be to everyone that the expectation is this,” Swanson continued. “I just kind of said now is a real important moment in culture setting. If we want to be winners here, we can’t just say, ‘All right, we’re going to turn our winner mindset on next year when we feel like we have everything right.’ No. The winning mindset stays at all times.”
Eventually, Hoyer bought in because of the results on the field. But Chicago had to make him believe.