Nico Hoerner could be part of the bridge from the current Chicago Cubs to the future version. But to win the 2nd base job, he’ll need to hit better than he did in 2020.

Nico Hoerner’s daily offseason to-do list featured the same task.

Nearly every day, the Chicago Cubs second baseman spoke with assistant hitting coach Chris Valaika to discuss tweaks the 23-year-old was implementing. Their setup wasn’t the typical offseason session, thanks to the pandemic.

Valaika, who was promoted to the Cubs coaching staff after last season, is based in Arizona. So a lot of their work was done virtually with Valaika and Hoerner exchanging hitting videos each day.

Over the course of the offseason, Valaika came to Chicago and checked in a couple of times. But most instruction was done remotely.

“Just not fighting myself,” Hoerner explained about his batting changes. “The game is hard enough as it is. Putting myself in a compromised position makes it that much harder, so being as athletic as I can and go from there.”

Valaika spent the previous two years as the Cubs minor-league hitting coordinator and sometimes crossed paths with Hoerner, who praised his addition to the big-league staff. With a relationship and trust already established, Hoerner and Valaika developed an offseason plan that focused, in part, on improving his movement quality and adjusting his positioning to maximize his swing.

Hoerner has slightly opened his stance to create space. It puts him in a more flexible position.

“He has such a innate ability to put the ball in play,” Valaika told the Tribune on Wednesday. “In the past when he’s been in such a closed position, he was really kind of fighting himself and fighting across the ball. So just by giving him some space to work — we didn’t really change too much on any swing changes, per se — it was more so just getting him in a better position to use the the skills he already has.

“He’s a very cerebral guy and does such a good job making his own adjustments.”

Hoerner went all-in for his offseason preparation. He wanted to use the Cubs’ available resources and spent the entire offseason in Chicago, living at his girlfriend’s apartment near the ballpark. He worked out at Wrigley Field with Cubs strength and conditioning coach Shane Wallen and stayed on top of his nutrition. He reported to camp near the same weight as last spring, but Hoerner said he is moving more athletically.

Second base is the only lineup spot up for grabs in camp. The up-and-coming Hoerner is competing with David Bote and Ildemaro Vargas to win the job.

“Being too obsessed with that specific thing in a comparative way of, every day I’m going to show up and compare myself to David Bote, is that going to be the healthiest way to get better as a baseball player? Probably not,” Hoerner said. “Luckily, he’s an awesome person and we have a really healthy relationship and both of us (are) getting better alongside each other.”

Hoerner’s lack of a big-league track record makes it tougher to analyze what was real in his underwhelming offensive performance in 2020 and what was the result of a small sample size. His walk rate (9.5%) was encouraging — it more than doubled from 2019 — but his strikeout rate (19.1%) also increased from the previous year.

Valaika said there is some truth to Hoerner’s 2020 sample size.

“He has that ability to put the ball in play and wants to swing,” Valaika said. “So it’s really just focusing that approach to understanding the pitches that he can he can drive and impact and taking more chances to do that. Really just finding those pitches, swinging at strikes and letting it all take care of itself.”

The Cubs knew they had an elite defender in Hoerner even before he was named a National League Gold Glove finalist at second base last year. Manager David Ross always values that part of the game as a defense-first catcher in his playing days.

But as much as he wants a great defense, Ross knows the Cubs need to be better offensively. Hoerner must show in Cactus League games that he won’t be a liability if he’s in the everyday lineup.

“You can definitely tell the work he’s put in,” Ross said Wednesday. “Nico is a guy that’s going to work. He’s going to find out his strengths and weaknesses. He’s still navigating through his early career of having his approach and his mindset or what works best for him, and I think he learned a lot offensively last year (from) his struggles.”

Hoerner should be an important part of the group that bridges this World Series-connected roster to the next iteration of the Cubs. It will require being more than just great with his glove.

“Being here now but also being more ingrained with where the organization is going in the future, I think there’s some value in that,” Hoerner said. “And I hope that one day I can be as good to guys that are younger than me as guys have been to me.”