The Chicago Cubs earned an impressive sweep over the weekend against their crosstown rival Chicago White Sox to move the record to 28-19 and win five out of six in their last two series at Wrigley Field.
As the Cubs prepare to hit the road now for a six-game road trip starting in Miami on Monday night, it sounds like there’s a good chance they are going to have a significant addition back in the lineup.
Top prospect Matt Shaw — who was optioned back to Triple-A after a rough start to the year at the plate — was not in the lineup for Iowa on Sunday, leading to speculation his strong performance there has led to a call-up coming this week.
“It’s under consideration, for sure,” manager Craig Counsell said after Sunday’s victory per Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic (subscription required). “We’ll get together after the game and discuss.”
That consideration appears to have led to a decision, as Jon Heyman reported Monday morning Shaw is indeed returning this week.
In 24 Triple-A games since the surprising optioning, Shaw has slashed .286/.409/.560 with six home runs and 24 RBI, figures made even more impressive by the fact that he got off to a very rough start once he got to Iowa.
The simple answer is that the Cubs do not have a better option right now than letting their rookie develop and work through issues while playing big league games.
The revolving door of Vidal Brujan, Nicky Lopez, Jon Berti and even Justin Turner has brought no less of a black hole to the lineup than even Shaw did when he slashed .172/.294/.241 over the first 18 games of the season.
None of the other options have provided a significant upgrade defensively from the top prospect either, leaving Chicago really with not much other choice
The Cubs have found themselves at a point where if they feel Shaw has made the changes they wanted to see from the youngster, then now is the time to bring him back.
They can let him develop and work through the issues he had while hopefully getting better production than they have to this point in 2025 from the hot corner.
If Shaw has indeed figured out the problems he was having to start the year, Chicago would be able to solve their biggest lineup issue right now with who they hope is going to man the position for the next decade-plus.
The Cubs getting even just average production from third base for the rest of the way given how strong they have started the year is a scary prospect for the rest of the National League.
