Four months ago, the Cubs had a bit of an issue at third base. Although the team kept giving votes of confidence to high-profile rookie Matt Shaw, there was a question about whether the Cubs needed to add a third baseman at the Trade Deadline.
The club’s No. 1 prospect in the preseason, Shaw broke camp with the Cubs, batting fifth on Opening Day against the Dodgers in Tokyo. But after 18 games in which he hit .172 with only two extra-base hits, Shaw was sent back to Triple-A.
He returned to the Majors on May 19 and had a brief streak of success before falling into another prolonged slump. The team gave Shaw some days off in July, hoping they would serve as a reset, but he entered the All-Star break with a .198/.276/.280 slash line and 13 extra-base hits across 63 games. He had the lowest batting average, slugging percentage and wRC+ (60) of the 32 primary third basemen who got at least 200 PAs before the break.
If this continued and the Cubs came up empty on hot-corner help at the Deadline, maybe they would have entered this offseason at least considering a move for one of the big-name free agents at the position, such as Alex Bregman or Eugenio Suárez.
But the Cubs can save that money for something else now (read: pitching). Shaw’s first-half struggles didn’t continue into the second half. His slash line in 205 PAs after the break was a much healthier .258/.317/.522 with 24 extra-base hits in 63 games. His wRC+ of 130 was bested by only two other primary third basemen: José Ramírez and Junior Caminero. Plus, he had the third-most Defensive Runs Saved among third basemen this season (12) and was a Gold Glove finalist.
But let’s stick to focusing on Shaw’s offensive turnaround. Here are a couple of reasons why he went from one of the worst to one of the best hitters at the hot corner in just a few months.
1. Tinkering pays off
Shaw’s month-long stint in the Minors included a lot of mechanical adjustments to just about everything inside of the batter’s box: His pre-pitch setup, his stance, his hand position, his leg kick. All of those little tweaks paved the way for big results.
As MLB.com’s Jared Greenspan explained in mid-August, Shaw started catching the ball much farther out in front of the plate and began focusing on pulling and elevating the ball. His intercept point went from about two inches in front of the plate to seven inches out front. His stance went from a neutral zero degrees to 33 degrees open. He ended the second half with a 30.9% pulled fly-ball rate, more than double his first half rate and tied with the Angels’ Zach Neto for the 11th highest among qualified hitters after the break.
That’s really the foundation of Shaw’s second-half surge. Those changes also allowed him to catch up to pitches that he missed too frequently during the earlier months.
2. Seeing the four-seamer
Opposing pitchers knew during the first half that Shaw wasn’t going to hurt them when they threw a four-seam fastball. He went 8-for-59 against those pitches with a .237 slugging percentage and a 4.1% barrel rate.
But once he got comfortable with all of those aforementioned changes, Shaw began hammering four-seamers. He batted .283 (13-for-46) with a .585 slug and a lofty 14.3% barrel rate. His expected batting average and expected slugging percentage hewed close to those marks (.287 and .546, respectively), indicating that Shaw’s post-break success against four-seamers was no fluke.
Ultimately, the Cubs’ unwavering confidence in Shaw was prudent. He had to overhaul so much of what he does as a hitter to get to this point, but his results during the final months of the 2025 season mean that Chicago can navigate this offseason with the peace of mind that the player whom they considered to be their long-term third baseman certainly looks the part.