Cubs ‘Showing Active Interest’ in Dansby Swanson Ahead of Winter Meetings
The volume is being turned up on the connection between the Cubs and Dansby Swanson, with the latest update coming from Jon Morosi. Just a couple days after Jon Heyman listed the Cubs as favorites to land the shortstop, Morosi tweeted that they have been “showing active interest” in Swanson ahead of the Winter Meetings.
Sources: #Cubs and #Phillies among teams showing active interest in free agent Dansby Swanson, ahead of next week's winter meetings in San Diego. @MLBNetwork @MLB
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 3, 2022
It’s notable that the Phillies are also listed because Morosi reported just a few days ago that they had emerged as favorites to sign Trea Turner, which has been speculated for a while. Perhaps that means this latest news was a leak meant to motivate Turner and/or Carlos Correa to engage a little more aggressively. That seems like a strong possibility from the Phillies’ side of things, but the smoke coming from the Cubs might be more legitimate.
Not only is there a sense that his lower contract demands line up better with Jed Hoyer’s intelligent spending mantra, but Swanson might have reason to prioritize Chicago as a landing spot. His fiancée, Malory Pugh, is a member of the US women’s national soccer team and plays for the Chicago Red Stars in the NWSL. Their leagues have very similar schedules, so living in the same city would have decided advantages.
Whether those advantages are enough to get Swanson to agree to a de facto hometown discount despite being from Kennesaw, Georgia is obviously yet to be seen. Even though he would be an upgrade for the Cubs, who would have an excellent middle infield combination with Nico Hoerner shifting over, big offensive upgrades would still be needed at other positions. As such, spending less to land Swanson over another shortstop would really only make sense if they put those savings into other players.
It’s very possible the Cubs get something going here this weekend or early next week as the Winter Meetings get rolling.
