After 4 games with Iowa Cubs, Kyle Schwarber happy with progress

Tommy Birch | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption Kyle Schwarber embracing time back in minors Kyle Schwarber's back in Des Moines with the Iowa Cubs after struggling during the first half of the Major League Baseball season with Chicago.

The Chicago Cubs sent Kyle Schwarber back to the minor leagues to rediscover the swing that made him one of the biggest prospects in all of baseball.

After four games with Triple-A Iowa, Schwarber is happy with how things are going so far.

Schwarber went 1-for-3 with an intentional walk Thursday during the Iowa Cubs’ 5-2 win over the New Orleans Baby Cakes before an announced crowd of 8,920 fans at Principal Park.

“I think it’s going pretty well,” Schwarber said. “Adjustments are being made. I like where I’m at.”

Schwarber has had mixed results since the Cubs sent him back to the minor leagues for the first time since 2015. In four games with Iowa, he’s hit .333 (5-15) with eight strikeouts.

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The hits are a strong sign that things may be headed in the right direction for Schwarber. But the strikeouts show there is still work to be done.

"It’s a process,” said Iowa manager Marty Pevey. “First of all, you have to break old habits.”

One of those bad habits has been Schwarber’s tendency to try to pull the ball constantly. The Cubs want him to think less about pulling and more about using more of the field. It’s something that Cubs hitting coordinator Andy Haines has been preaching to Schwarber while the two have been working together in Des Moines.

“(I’m) just trying to keep the move smaller, shorten everything down and just use the middle of the field,” Schwarber said.

And Cubs fans have seen that approach at times over the years, including last season when Schwarber worked his way back from the disabled list after missing most of the year and went on to hit .412 (7-17) in the World Series.

Cubs fans have also seen Schwarber veer off that approach and that’s one of the reasons for his struggles this season, when he hit just .171 in 64 games in Chicago. The good news is that Pevey said he’s already made strides.

During Thursday’s game, Schwarber ripped a single into the right, center field gap for his lone hit of the day.

“I’ll put it this way, he’s closer,” Pevey said. “He might not be there yet, but he’s getting closer.”

The Cubs won’t say how long Schwarber will be in the minors but it might not be long if he continues to show signs of success continues to make strides. With Chicago’s offense struggling to find consistency, the hope is that Schwarber can regain his form and help provide a powerful punch to the lineup after his stint in the minors.

“Right now he’s a minor-league guy and he understands that this is a process and hopefully, I would love to say by the end of this homestand, he goes back to the big leagues and he’s a productive major leaguer for the rest of the year,” Pevey said.

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