Dansby Swanson came out of the gate hot, banging four homers in his first 61 plate appearances to fuel a 123 wRC+ with the help of a new torpedo bat. Over his next 65 PAs, however, Swanson’s numbers sank to the point where he had a wRC+ of 3 — that’s 97% worse than the MLB average — and a 41.5% strikeout rate. Whether the bat was part of the cause or just a symptom of something worse, and I’d argue it was some of both, a serious change was needed.
He appeared to have ditched the new bat somewhere in late April, after which he tripled and doubled to inflate those putrid numbers above from what had been far worse.