Nearly two weeks after calling up top minor league pitcher Cade Horton, the Chicago Cubs are bringing back their No. 1 position player prospect as well.
Third baseman Matt Shaw is being recalled from Triple-A Iowa, according to media reports. He is expected to join the Cubs during their six-game road trip to Miami and Cincinnati, which begins Monday.
Shaw, 23, is ranked as the team’s top prospect by MLB.com and The Athletic, both of which also rate him as a top 25 prospect overall. He was the Cubs’ 2023 first-round draft pick (No. 13 overall) out of Maryland.
The Cubs had Shaw on their major league roster as the starting third baseman coming out of spring training. But he struggled in his 18-game stint, batting .172/.294/.291 with one home run, 3 RBI and 18 strikeouts in 58 plate appearances. In mid-April, Shaw was demoted to the minors to make some changes in his swing, notably toning down his leg kick.
“A lot of it was just, ‘Hey, go get back to driving the baseball,'” Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly told MLB.com. “He had gotten a little passive here with some of his swing decisions.”
“We know he can drive the ball to right field and right-center,” he added, “but him pulling the ball in the air and doing some damage to the pull side is important, too.”
Since then, the changes have been successful for Shaw, resulting in a .286/.409/.560 average with 6 home runs, 5 doubles and 14 RBI in 24 games (110 PAs) with Iowa.
The Cubs could certainly use more production at third base as they try to stay ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central, currently holding a two-game lead. Chicago ranks second-to-last in MLB at the position with a .184 average and .493 OPS. The Cubs are also the only team not to get a home run from third base this season, which has shuffled among Jon Berti (.213 avg., .512 OPS) and defensive specialist Nicky Lopez (.056, .283 OPS).
Shaw’s promotion will apparently come at Lopez’s expense, as he reportedly did not travel with the Cubs to Miami as the team seeks to trade him or designate him for assignment.
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