MESA, Ariz. — Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner played 150 games last season for the first time in his career.
‘‘A big part of last year — and just in every year — was being on the field a lot,’’ Hoerner said last week. ‘‘Obviously, that’s going to be at the heart of all of our success. So just proud of how much baseball I was able to play last year and able to maintain energy and health throughout the entire season. Never going to take that for granted. So keep prioritizing that.’’
The next step for Hoerner is adding power to his offense without sacrificing his contact rate.
‘‘We know that Nico could go out there and probably hit .280 in his sleep,’’ hitting coach Dustin Kelly said. ‘‘He can do that. He just has such good bat-to-ball skills, he doesn’t strike out.’’
Indeed, Hoerner has hit higher than .280 in every season but the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
To unlock some more power, Hoerner has made some minor adjustments in his lower half, the biggest source of power in a player’s swing. And he has done some bat-speed training with the goal of opening up his body a little and, as Kelly put it, to ‘‘give him a little more room for error out in front.’’
‘‘There’s power in there,’’ Kelly said. ‘‘If you watch Nico take [batting practice], there’s plenty of power in there. It’s just him getting a little bit more comfortable and taking some chances. And the game situation will dictate that.
‘‘He’s not going to walk out here and try and hit 40 homers; that’s not what we’re asking him [to do]. But there is power in there that he’ll be able to get to probably a little bit more this year.’’
Lefty bats
Manager Craig Counsell declined to talk specifically about players who still have to undergo physicals to make their signings official. But sources confirmed the Cubs are bringing in veteran left-handed hitters David Peralta and Dominic Smith to major-league camp on minor-league deals.
‘‘We’re still at the stage of the offseason where there are players out there, and so [president of baseball operations] Jed [Hoyer] and [general manager] Carter [Hawkins] are doing their best to provide some options here during spring training and some bats, really,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘So that’s not going to stop, and we’ll continue doing that.’’
Both players had surgery this offseason. Peralta’s procedure repaired the flexor tendon in his left arm. Smith’s was for a hamate fracture in his hand. As long as their physicals don’t turn up any surprises, they are expected in camp in the coming days.
‘‘You look at our team right now, we’re pretty right-handed,’’ Hawkins said. ‘‘And that’s fine if all those righties can hit right-handers. But left-handers typically can hit right-handers a little bit more effectively. And to bring in, potentially, some left-handed bats that can help fortify our depth a little bit and help our team win, that’s something we’ll do every day of the week.’’
Sights and sounds
Going into full-squad workouts, Nick Madrigal was expecting to have a lot of conversations with Christopher Morel about third base. The fundamentals of the position are fresh in Madrigal’s mind after he changed positions last season, and Morel is focusing on third to begin camp.
Sure enough, the two were manning the position during infield practice Tuesday and could be seen talking about footwork on throws to second base.
