Baseball America’s Hot Sheet celebrates the best prospect performances of the week, and it’s no surprise that Matt Shaw makes the cut after the scorcher he put together.
What’s particularly delightful, though, is that :
“1. Matt Shaw, 3B, Cubs
Team: Triple-A Iowa (International)
Age: 22
Why He’s Here: .462/.500/1.000 (12-for-26), 7 R, 3 2B, 1 3﷽B, 3 HR, 5 RBIs, 2 BB, 6 SO, 1-for-1 SB
The Scoop: Louisville’s pitching staff was likely mighty happy to see Shaw depart after last week’s series. Shaw strung together five multi-hit efforts including a four-hit game in the series finale. Shaw homered in three different contests and reached base in all six games. He is now hitting .296/.382/.565 with seven home runs over 29 Triple-A games. The top hitting prospect in the Cubs system looks like a likely contributor for the big league team next season and has a great opportunity to break camp with the club. (GP)”
On the season, the Cubs’ 2023 first rounder is hitting .283 .375 .493/147 wRC+ in his time split between Double-A and Triple-A. He’s got an 11.5% BB rate, an 18.4% K rate, a .311 BABIP, a .210 ISO, and numbers just as good at Triple-A as they were at Double-A. He’s also the only 20-20 player in the organization this year.
It has been a tremendous offensive season for Matt Shaw, and he’s the Cubs’ top prospect now for a reason.
Looking ahead, as BA does, to 2025, I don’t think anyone will be able to answer yet exactly what role Shaw might fill and when. It could be anything from as modest as spending at least the first half back at Iowa before a re-evaluation of the circumstances, to as wild as starting Opening Day at third base or second base on the big league Cubs. Either of those, or anything in between, would not surprise me.
Much is going to be outside of Shaw’s control, at least initially. What do the Cubs do at third base and second base this offseason? How do the Cubs view Shaw’s best usage, positionally-speaking, at the big league level? Have other moves on the Major League roster opened up a spot by way of moving guys around, using the DH slot, etc.? Do the Cubs want to incorporate Shaw first as a part-time utility guy, or will he have to be an everyday starter wherever he is for the first half of 2025? Again, there are a number of answers to these questions that would not surprise me.
In fact, I suspect the Cubs themselves don’t have all the answers yet. I think they’re going to want to see what opportunities present themselves this offseason for improving the big league roster, and then they can coordinate with prospects like Shaw accordingly. He’s raking, yes, but he’s only in his first full professional season, and so far has just 29 games at Triple-A. It would not be outrageous for the Cubs to seek to improve the big league offense with big league additions, and exercise some patience with Shaw (among others!).
So, for now, we can just enjoy Shaw wrapping up a tremendous season in the c𓆏oming week, and then see how things play out this offse🎃ason. After which, it will all wind up making for a good Spring Training conversation.
