Craig Counsell embracing challenge through Cubs’ struggles

Craig Counsell’s Cubs entered the season as favorites to win the National League Central, and after a month and a half, they had only confirmed those preseason expectations. A pair of ten-game winning streaks before the first week of May will do that.

Blame what you will for what’s happened since then, but with the All-Star break a month away, the Cubs are mired in third place in their division. And aside from the on-paper talent that’s on the roster, there isn’t a lot of reason yet to hope they will rise back to the top of the standings.

Between the rotating door of injuries to the pitching staff and the nagging offensive slump, the Cubs’ 2026 season is looking perilously close to being a wash. And it’s challenging every managerial and coaching muscle Counsell has.

“Any time any of us experience struggles, you’re more vulnerable during those times,” he said. “That hopefully leads to us getting some answers. They’ve certainly led to some things we’ve tried. They don’t all work. Some work, some don’t. But I think they lead to some good things.

“And I also think you get to know people a little better through this, and hopefully that helps the next time through these things, so you have to use them as opportunities. You have to find opportunities when things aren’t going well; it’s really important.”

This might be the first time in Counsell’s managerial career when a season has challenged him to this degree. In nine seasons as the Brewers manager, his teams posted a winning record six times. He led Milwaukee to the playoffs five times. Of all the teams he’s managed, perhaps none came into a season with as positive expectations as the 2026 Cubs.

But for what it’s worth, as this team has continued to flounder since starting their skid roughly five weeks ago, Counsell has leaned into the team’s challenges and embraced the way the last several weeks of baseball have tested him and his staff.

“This is where coaching happens, so in a lot of ways you have to take it as a challenge,” he said. “Take it as a challenge, take it as an opportunity to coach and to find solutions. Your players are asking for them. The ears are wide open when they’re struggling.

“When you’re having success, it’s like, ‘Why are we changing things?’ So I think that’s how you have to look at it. It’s a rewarding part of coaching.”

It’s an old baseball truism that the manager can’t pitch the innings or take the at-bats for the players. To some extent, there’s not much Counsell can do when veterans like Dansby Swanson, Alex Bregman, and Nico Hoerner aren’t hitting. Or when it seems like every arm Counsell expected to rely on this season is on the injured list.

He can tweak the batting order, be strategic about favorable matchups, or give guys a day off at opportune times, but the best version of this Cubs team is one in which his veteran bats start producing. In Swanson’s case, coming into Wednesday’s game against the Rockies with a .587 OPS has some — rightfully — wondering if his defense is enough to outweigh the lack of output from his bat.

But on that front, Counsell is plain about the fact that he thinks even a slight defensive downgrade brought by moving Hoerner to shortstop and using Pedro Ramirez or Matt Shaw at second base isn’t worth the offensive boost that such a move might provide.

“I think we should be continuing to invest in Dansby getting back to the offensive player that we know he is,” Counsell said. “And that’s what needs to happen for this team. That’s important to keep trying to do, and the best way to do that is to have him out on the field.”

Like the speaker in Robert Frost’s 1915 poem “A Servant to Servants” says, “the best way out is always through. And I agree to that, or in so far as that I can see no way out but through.” There might be no better way to get Swanson right at the plate again than continuing to write his name in the lineup.

And his teammates value having Swanson in the lineup as much as Counsell wants to keep him there, in part because of the many other things he does to contribute to wins.

“We love having him at short and holding it down out there, so I’m just glad that he’s in the lineup every day and getting chances to turn his season around because he helps us in so many ways,” Pete Crow-Armstrong said.

Swanson isn’t the only guy trying to find it at the plate, but he illustrates the larger problem Counsell has. With a roster made up of mostly veterans, sitting them in an effort to mix things up and get the team going again is more complicated. Not just because of their status, but because there’s the past track record that can make it seem like a turnaround is just one at-bat away.

It can also make adjustments difficult. Like Counsell said, the guys might be open to ideas, but they’ve also gotten to where they are because of years of doing things a certain way and having success.

“I think any of us would be a little more hesitant with changing things that we’ve had great and long periods of success with,” Counsell said. “That’s really normal, and it’s just part of it.”

One game doesn’t exorcise all the demons, but the Cubs scoring seven runs in the second inning on Wednesday, en route to an 8-6 win over the Rockies, is at least a step in the direction Counsell would like to see. Perhaps most notably, Swanson clubbed a two-run homer in that frame.

That might be the first sign of a turnaround for Swanson, who said he’s been working on adjusting his approach during his time in the batting cage the last several days. He said the emphasis has been on facing the kinds of uncomfortable situations that have contributed to his offensive struggles this season so he can eliminate bad habits. Namely, his inability to hit offspeed and breaking pitches; Swanson is batting .034 and .103 respectively against those.

“It can be so easy in this game to chase your tail,” Swanson said. “Just like every day try and chase results, but being set in an approach, in a competitive state of mind and just going out there and competing with that. You’re not going to figure it out in a day, but you can always go back to competing and trust in the work that will get you there.”

If Swanson is snapping out of his offensive funk, then Counsell’s job gets a lot easier. He’s just one piece of the lineup puzzle, but him getting right means Counsell can shift some of his focus to other areas of his ballclub that need help.