Chicago Cubs: Matt Shaw’s hot hand creates good drama

The Chicago Cubs upset Matt Shaw’s applecart this past offseason when they pulled the shocker of signing three-time All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman to a 5-year, $175 million contract.

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And they did it again to Shaw just three days into the 2026 season when they announced a 6-year, $141 million contract extension for second baseman Nico Hoerner.

Shaw, the Cubs’ 2023 first round draft pick, had been converted to a full-time third baseman prior to the 2025 season to fill the team’s major league roster hole there and then had been pegged as a replacement at second base should Hoerner leave via free agency.

Now, with third and second settled for several years, Shaw is facing the reality that there really may be not much playing time open to him. Seiya Suzuki’s knee injury got the 24-year-old some playing time in right field, but Suzuki is coming back Friday and Shaw will again find himself displaced.

Shaw is cooking, despite uncertainty

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To his credit, though, Shaw has been cooking at the plate and working his tail off in the field. His modest .257 batting average won’t jump off the screen, but the underlying metrics show a young hitter who is swinging the bat well and hitting the ball harder than he ever has.

Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation crunched the Statcast numbers and saw him far surpassing his 2025 numbers (and current league average numbers) in hard-hit rate, average exit velocity, and barrel rate, as well as squared-up contact rate.

He puts things into perspective here:

“So right there on the surface, you can see some really meaningful improvement in just how often and how hard Matt Shaw is hitting the ball this season compared to last. And that’s the first, most important development of note to me because even during his ‘hot’ second-half last season (130 wRC+), he wasn’t even CLOSE to this level of quality contact: 32.4 hard%, 86.7 exit velo, 10.1 barrel%…

On the surface, Matt Shaw is swinging more frequently here in 2026 than he did last season, both on pitches out of the zone and strikes. And although that’s not always a good thing, I think a more aggressive Matt Shaw is going to be a better Matt Shaw, especially because he is pretty good at making contact and avoiding strikeouts.”

Shaw’s two home runs and a double in 35 at bats so far attest to the harder contact. If anything, as Cerami also notes, he’s actually had some bad luck in having hard-hit balls convert to hits.

Future plans for Shaw

But what happens Friday, when the young talent once again becomes a starter without a position?

Most likely, Suzuki and Bregman could get some DH time to keep them rested for a playoff push. Chicago would also be wise to do the same with Hoerner and Dansby Swanson. Having Shaw available—and starting to become his actualized self—will give the Cubs a huge asset over the course of a long, grueling season. He’ll also be valuable next year as Suzuki and left fielder Ian Happ could both be gone via free agency.

For now, though, the Matt Shaw dilemma is a good one to have for the Cubs. Having too much talent for too few positions is always going to be a positive.

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