Swanson felt his left side tighten up mid-swing during Sunday's loss to the Cardinals and was pulled after his first at-bat. He didn't return, and by Sunday night the writing was on the wall: an MRI was scheduled for Monday, and the 10-day IL stint was already being discussed before the scan even happened.
The timing stings. Swanson had appeared in 119 of the Cubs' 125 games this season and had played in at least 147 games in each of his three full years in Chicago — this isn't a guy who misses time. The Cubs had also just ripped off 9 wins in their last 12 games and were closing the gap on the division-leading Brewers before dropping the final 2 of the series to St. Louis, an 11-4 defeat among them.
Oblique strains are notoriously stubborn for hitters — the typical recovery window runs anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks depending on severity, which means this could easily bleed past the minimum 10 days and eat into a stretch run where every game matters. Swanson told reporters he's never dealt with a soft-tissue injury like this in his career, which is its own small silver lining, but manager Craig Counsell didn't sugarcoat what's at stake, calling him "critical to our defense" and "one of the better shortstops in the game."
With Swanson out, Nico Hoerner is sliding over from second to short, and rookie Pedro Ramirez is set to soak up the bulk of the reps at second base. Hoerner, a Gold Glove-caliber defender in his own right, was candid about the adjustment: any time you've got moving parts up the middle, it's a challenge — and that's before factoring in a rookie learning on the fly in a pennant race.
Swanson is signed through 2029 on the 7-year, $177 million deal he inked before the 2023 season, so this isn't a walk-year scare — but his.216 average with 18 home runs and 66 RBIs this year already had some fans grumbling about the contract even before the injury. Now the Cubs just need him healthy, because a middle infield reshuffle is a shaky way to try to run down Milwaukee.
Next up for Chicago: a White Sox series that's already a big enough deal on its own, with the Sox sitting 5.5 games up in their division. Doing it without a two-time Gold Glove shortstop just raises the degree of difficulty.