Matt Shaw Making Adjustments at Iowa, Still Significant Room to Improve
Matt Shaw and Gage Workman opened the season as the Cubs’ primary third base options, but now one is in Iowa and the other on the South Side while Jon Berti gets everyday reps at the hot corner. While not quite aggressive enough to send off strong desperation vibes, it seems a little like Craig Counsell has been cutting the music off very quickly in the ongoing game of musical chairs for time at the position. Barring a shocking trade, it looks like Berti will continue keeping the seat warm until Shaw figures things out.
That includes fixing a swing flaw he had recognized at some point during a slow start that saw him slash .172/.294/.241 with one homer over 68 plate appearances. I posited that his plate approach got pretty wonky as well, driving an excellent walk rate paired with a higher strikeout rate from falling behind early with alarming frequency.
“When I say that,” Shaw explained to reporters just before being optioned to Triple-A, “I’m just meaning, like, really small adjustments that are going to get me back to where my swing needs to be. Everything else I feel really confident about, so it’s that last bit of like, ‘Now my swing’s where it needs to be,’ and then it’s hopefully off to the races.”
Let’s first get to what wasn’t a problem, and that’s the funky-looking stance that makes Shaw look awkward to those who’ve never watched him before. Nor was his big leg kick the issue, though it’s understandable for correlation to look like causation in cases like this. So what was the issue?
According to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, Shaw’s timing was off slightly after working over the offseason to start his swing earlier in anticipation of higher velocity in the bigs. The indecision Shaw displayed during his time with the Cubs is often a product of being late, but it’s also possible his inconsistent sequencing led to him getting in his own head.
“Honestly, as I’ve gone through this,” Shaw said, “I’ve realized that I didn’t need to adjust like I did, and I think I was better off just sticking with what makes me good.”
Matt Shaw was all over the basepaths tonight.
The @Cubs‘ top prospect collected his first four-hit performance at the Triple-A level for the @IowaCubs. pic.twitter.com/XMZH9DUC5m
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 30, 2025
Initial indications are that Shaw has figured something out since his demotion, especially after four straight multihit games (10-for-17) have him up to a .324 average after starting cold (1-for-17). He’s also walked seven times with just two strikeouts. But a lot of those hits have been on the ground, and at least two haven’t left the infield, leading to questions about the sustainability of the results.
When discussing the promotion earlier this month, Jed Hoyer explained that the organization’s top prospect looked like he was in “survival mode” as he sought contact over power. As noted by Brad Robinson on X, the Cubs also wanted Shaw to quiet his head movement as part of his adjustment. As you may be able to see in the videos, it does look like he’s shifting his weight forward a little too far and diving into his swing.
Shaw gets us on the board!
6-1 Buffalo pic.twitter.com/TmsrDA1EtC
— Iowa Cubs (@IowaCubs) April 30, 2025
That could very well be the cause of his increased grounder rate at Iowa, up to 53.3% after having never been within five points of that figure in the past. His fly balls are at just 23.3%, roughly 12 points lower than usual. We’re also talking about a pretty small sample, so take that for what it’s worth. It’s also possible that Shaw is overcorrecting to an extent, which is something we saw from Ian Happ when he was sent to the minors for a long spell in 2019. Much like his younger counterpart, Happ’s strikeouts and fly balls decreased dramatically in Iowa as he worked to cover holes in his swing.
That’s why I’m more interested in Shaw’s process than his results for the time being, as one of those will drive the other as the sample grows. And what I’m seeing, or so I believe from this limited data set, is that Shaw is doing a better job of hunting his pitches early. Over the course of his four-game multihit streak, he’s swung at nine of 19 first pitches and has only taken three first-pitch strikes. That was an issue I’d identified with his performance at the highest level, where pitchers quickly learned they could get ahead on him because he was taking early.
It’s part overcorrection, part fake-it-till-you-make-it as Shaw looks to regain his timing and confidence. He appears to be doing a good job of tempering his aggressiveness with what has always been a good eye for the zone; now it’s a matter of finding that power stroke on a more consistent basis. I’d be very interested to see what his bat speed is now after sitting at a mere 68.2 mph with the Cubs, more than three ticks below league average.
That’s a clear indicator of what Hoyer was talking about with Shaw dialing his swing down for contact, and it’s something that has to improve for him to make a big impact in Chicago. I think he’ll get back to that eventually, it just may take wading through a more contact-heavy approach for a little while longer yet.
