The Cubs have gone back in time this winter to help Jason Heyward rediscover the power that made him one of the game's most formidable prospects.
Cubs fans remember Heyward's first major-league at-bat -- a home run off Carlos Zambrano in 2010. But a more convincing sample size occurred in 2012, when Heyward hit a career-high 27 home runs at age 23 that clearly overshadowed a .269 batting average and a career-high 82 RBIs.
Thanks to videotapes of that season and assistant hitting coach Eric Hinske's careful observations, the Cubs believe Heyward can rekindle the power and quickly distance himself from his disastrous 2016 season.
"It's not exactly making a change," hitting coach John Mallee emphasized Friday at the Cubs Convention at the Sheraton Grand Chicago. "It's just getting him back to what he was.
"Those are all natural moves for him and all moves he has done in the past. It's not adding a leg kick or teaching him to pull the ball more. It's getting back to the swing patterns he had when he had success."
The alterations include a lowering of Heyward's hands, with the bat vertical and not wrapped around his head.
Those modifications, according to a veteran major-league scout, could increase Heyward's batting average 20 to 30 points.
"He has cut down about 8 to 10 inches on his swing," the scout noted after watching videotape Darnell McDonald placed on Instagram.
McDonald is the coordinator of the Cubs' mental skills program, and he watched Heyward's workouts in late November at the team's minor-league complex in Mesa, Ariz.
"This should help him get to the ball quicker and hit the ball with more authority," McDonald said.
That's an encouraging prospect for Cubs fans and Heyward, who batted a career-low .230 with only 35 extra-base hits -- including a career-low seven home runs -- in 530 at-bats.
Heyward's batting average on balls in play was only .266 -- a considerable dip from his .319 mark in 2012 with the Braves.
The Cubs are encouraged that Heyward, who signed an eight-year, $184 million contract before last season, moved to Arizona to take advantage of their facilities and devote much of his offseason to polishing his swing under the supervision of Hinske, a teammate of Heyward in 2012, and Mallee.
"It's a huge help," Heyward said of Hinske's knowledge of his swing.
"I'm just trying to get back to doing things simple the right way. Be in a good position to hit all the time. And it's easier said than done when you're trying to do it in the season, working in the cage and not in the game when you're trying to compete and help the team win.
"The offseason allows you to slow things down and do that. You just make sure you take time to focus on all the little things."
Without the pressure of needing to produce in the postseason, Heyward has taken advantage of the offseason to work on his alterations at a deliberate pace.
"During the season, as hard as he tried, sometimes you get lost as a player and you get to a point where you can't even breathe because you're trying to do so well," Mallee said. "I think he fell into part of that."
Mallee pointed to three checkpoints in Heyward's approach.
"It's not like he takes 100 swings in two hours," Mallee said. "Any good person is trying to change his behavior or the mechanics or the patterns, swing-wise. They're going to take time in between reps, breathe, think about what they're doing, and you film it. Then you look at film. You learn three ways -- from hearing, seeing and feeling."
Kris Bryant, whose alteration in his swing path helped him cut down his strikeouts by 45 while smacking 39 home runs and cruising to the 2016 National League Most Valuable Player award, admitted he tinkered with what Heyward is attempting.
"It's a huge difference," said Bryant, who still wraps the bat around his head. "You look at what he has done the previous six years, how successful he has been, and know he can be even more successful than that. And that's exciting to have."
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