While there have rarely been questions about Pete Crow-Armstrong’s value as a defender, the Cubs knew his offense would need some more seasoning.

They’re hopeful they might have found the right recipe to get him in a groove at the plate.

Hitting coach Dustin Kelly and the Cubs worked with Crow-Armstrong on his weight transfer in his load, hoping it would allow him to generate more power in his swing. The results, lately, have been encouraging.

Over his last 12 games, the rookie center fielder is slashing .317/.333/.488 with 3 doubles, 2 triples, 6 RBI and 4 stolen bases — and the underlying data reaffirms it. His average exit velocity has jumped and his swing decisions have improved.

“Just want to keep doing it,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I think just going into every at-bat confidently. I think that’s kind of the feeling that I want to keep. I think it’s important to remember what these kinds of swings feel like, but just kind of really hone in on I’m going up and approaching each pitch.”

It all stems from a drill that Kelly, Crow-Armstrong and Cody Bellinger worked on when the team was in Kansas City. It was an exercise Crow-Armstrong had done with Kelly way back in January, which focused on his load, and making sure he kept weight on his back foot and transferred it to his front side during the swing.

“He was kind of doing it in the cage and it looked pretty good,” Kelly said. “We were taking some video on the side and just [said] ‘Hey, let’s run this out there for a game or two and see how it works.’”

That would allow him to tap into his power more and drive the baseball more.

“If you look at the quality of at-bat and what he’s doing impacting balls to the pull side, to the opposite field, it seems like that mechanical change might be one that sticks for a while,” Kelly said.

[MORE: Pete Crow-Armstrong’s offense improving over recent weeks]

The results were almost instantaneous. He had 6 hits over the road trip that began in Kansas City and is currently riding a 6-game hitting streak.

“The ball has just been hit to the middle of the field a lot,” manager Craig Counsell said. “For any hitter, I think that’s a good sign that you’re really on time and swinging at pitches in the middle part of the plate and doing a nice job with them and probably getting some pitches to hit and then doing something with them.”

It’s one of the rare times the coaching staff has approached him with mechanical tweaks to his offensive game. More often than not, the Cubs’ hitting group has been focusing on the mental side with Crow-Armstrong — “Probably 90% of it is that,” Kelly said.

That’s a common approach with young players; they have to learn to trust their game, what’s gotten them there and that they belong at the big-league level, while encountering extended failure for the first time in their careers.

“And that’s hard for young guys because they want to go out there and they want to perform and they want to help the team,” Kelly said. “It’s not going to happen at the same time for every guy … With Pete, it’s happened a little slower than what probably he expected or other people [expected]. But you’re seeing a really good quality at-bat from a young player that doesn’t have a lot of big-league time.

“And it’s an important part of the season for us, too. So it’s been a huge, huge moment for him.”