MESA, Ariz. — Chicago Cubs top prospect Matt Shaw admittedly kept an eye on the team’s free-agent pursuit of third baseman Alex Bregman.
A front-runner entering spring training to win the starting job at third, Shaw gained clarity on how his camp might play out after Bregman signed Wednesday night with the Boston Red Sox. The Massachusetts native received a text from a Red Sox friend, who broke the news to Shaw.
“Absolutely it’s something you definitely follow along with,” Shaw said Friday before the Cubs’ first full-squad workout. “I’ve been spending a lot of time working on third base, so that decision impacts a lot where I might have the opportunity to play in the field. Just trying to continue to get work in different places and now obviously going to focus a little bit more on third base.”
Shaw, who turned 23 in November, could become the first Cub under 24 to make his major-league debut on opening day since third baseman Gary Scott in 1991, according to team historian Ed Hartig, something that has only happened 32 times in franchise history.
Shaw’s important spring is off to a slow start, though. He is day to day dealing with a left oblique issue he suffered about five days ago after a swing in the batting cage.
“I don’t anticipate any problems,” manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s responding really well, and we’ll go from there.”
As a fellow first-round draft pick, second baseman Nico Hoerner can understand the opportunity and challenges ahead of Shaw. Hoerner debuted as a September call-up following multiple infielder injuries a little more than a year after the Cubs took him with the No. 24 pick in 2018. He had not yet reached Triple A at the time. Shaw comes to camp with only 35 career games at Triple-A Iowa.
“There’s situations as a younger player where you could have an incredible spring and there’s no opportunity, you could do nothing impactful in spring training games and have an opportunity — there’s so much outside of your control,” Hoerner said Friday. “And I think he’s got a good sense of that. He strikes me as somebody who has a very strong sense of who he is as a player, the things that he does well, things that he can improve on. He seems like he self-assesses really well in that way, and there’s always going to be a new challenge, the next thing.”
Ian Happ, now the longest-tenured Cub following Kyle Hendricks’ offseason departure, sees similarities in Shaw’s competitiveness and confidence to Hoerner’s when the latter first reached the majors. Happ believes Shaw possesses the attitude and drive to embrace the chance to make the opening-day roster.
“There’s different ways to approach it,” Happ, 30, said. “I think probably the best way is to acknowledge that it’s real and it’s a real opportunity and to seize it.”
No matter what level the Cubs have put Shaw at in his two years of professional baseball, all the 13th pick in 2023 does is hit. Big-league pitchers represent his next challenge after posting a .298/.395/.534 slash line with seven home runs and eight doubles in 131 at-bats with Iowa last year.
“There’s pressure no matter where you are, so it’s just staying consistent,” Shaw said. “But I look forward to it. Everyone’s going to fail sometimes. I mean, you look around the entire big leagues, whether it’s the best of the best or new guys like myself, and you find that everybody struggles from time to time. So just being able to minimize that, move past it and accept it for what it is, that’s part of the game.”
The Cubs will need more than Shaw’s offensive upside if he makes the team as their everyday option at third. He must prove he can handle the position defensively with enough reliability to be playable. A majority of his starts between Double-A Tennessee and Triple A in 2024 came at third base, where he finished with eight errors and a .944 fielding percentage in 63 starts.
As he continues to hone his defense, Shaw wants to be able to use his feet better and have clean footwork. He also has worked on his arm slot, dropping it to a slightly lower angle on throws, which has felt and looked better. As he tries to move past the oblique issue and prepare for the season, Shaw’s sights already are set on the season opener next month at the Tokyo Dome, where he could make his major-league debut.
“You have to have that mindset, whether it’s making the trip to Japan, making the team, you have to have that mindset of believing in yourself,” Shaw said. “Obviously that’s my goal for this spring. Being able to do that would be amazing, be a dream come true, something I’ve been dreaming of for a long time.
“Having the front office, coaching staff, players believe in me and believe that I can help this team win a division and move forward with, that would be amazing.”
