Chicago Cubs: Quick hook for top prospect Matt Shaw says a lot

The Chicago Cubs pulled the plug on the Matt Shaw show, at least for now.

On Tuesday, the Cubs announced that they’d be sending the 23-year-old Shaw back to Triple-A for further development and some needed fine tuning.

Chicago’s 2023 first round draft pick had sped his way through the Cubs’ farm system, working his way through the organization with a superior bat and a work ethic that had helped him become an above-adequate fielder.

At the major league level, however, the brilliant Shaw failed to shine as the team’s starting third baseman. In 18 games, the top organizational prospect (and the no. 14 prospect in all of baseball, per The Athletic’s Keith Law), batted a lowly .172 with 1 home run and 3 RBIs. He had also committed 4 errors, by far leading an otherwise defensively superior squad.

Given his lack of production, the demotion to Iowa was not exactly a shocker. It’s not uncommon for highly-touted prospects to make a trip or two back to the minors for extra work. What surprised many in Shaw’s case, though, was how quickly it happened.

Chicago Cubs Gave Matt Shaw The Quick Hook

Although they never came out and said it, the Cubs had pretty much designated Shaw as THE man at third base very early into the offseason. A three-quarters stab at free agent Alex Bregman slightly deviated from that plan, but when they whiffed on the veteran third baseman, they went right back to their main man, Shaw.

So, to give up on him after just 20 games, says a lot. Mostly, it says something about how seriously the front office and the coaching staff believe in this 2025 Cubs team as real postseason contenders.

The Cubs have been winning, even as Shaw treaded water. There was no dire need to switch him out. They could’ve given him more time to feel his way around and work things out for himself. Except, you don’t really do that if you feel that your team is capable of being in the thick of playoff contention.

In a playoff-bound team, a no-impact developing prospect may be tolerated, but not one who could actually cost you games.

“We want to get a productive player back,” Cubs manager Crag Counsell told media. “Sometimes you have to take a step back to do that. You obviously give guys time to work through it. But we just thought we saw enough where we need to kind of take a break from this level.”

The New Third Base Plan

The Cubs third base plan, per Patrick Mooney of The Athletic, appears to be a platoon of Rule 5 draft pick Gage Workman and offseason trade acquisition Vidal Brujan, who was activated from the injured list on the same day Shaw was sent down.

That plan B is also not ideal, but the hope is that the defensively sound duo, with Jon Berti and Justin Turner lending a hand when needed, will at least plug the hole at third and keep things steady until a re-tooled Shaw can make his way back to the majors.

Moving Forward

“This league is unrelenting,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer told The Athletic. “You don’t want to see a point at which he’s just trying to survive at the plate. Part of what makes him excellent is the exit velocities. He drives the ball. It felt like he probably was getting a little bit contact-oriented with some of the pitching we’re facing. We felt like that was an indication that maybe it’s more survival mode right now.”

The Cubs are playing well enough right now. They’re not in a spot where they urgently need to have a fully-actualized Matt Shaw at this very moment. That winning vibe allowed them the flexibility to hit “pause” and bank on a more polished Shaw later on.

The biggest takeaway in all of this, though, should be that the Cubs, themselves, see that they have a real winning team on their hands and they just don’t have time for stragglers. That’s a good thing.

Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-matt-shaw-third-base-hoyer?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chicago-cubs-matt-shaw-third-base-hoyer