SAN DIEGO — Shaking up their roster, the Chicago Cubs demoted rookie third baseman Matt Shaw to Triple-A Iowa and rearranged the bullpen Tuesday, showing that club officials are operating with a sense of urgency.
The Cubs handed Shaw the third-base job in spring training after their failed pursuit of Alex Bregman, the All-Star third baseman who instead signed a three-year, $120 million contract with the Boston Red Sox. Shaw, a first-round pick in the 2023 draft, entered the year as the sport’s No. 14 prospect, according to The Athletic’s Keith Law, but he still had to learn a new defensive position while getting his first exposure to major-league spin, velocity and command.
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The organization seemed prepared to handle the inevitable growing pains. Kyle Tucker — the superstar hitter acquired in a win-now trade with the Houston Astros — would take pressure off everyone else in the lineup. Craig Counsell has a well-earned reputation for managing young talent with patience.
It’s only the middle of April. Even amid a difficult opening schedule, the first-place Cubs (12-8) are still banking wins. Shaw, though, was hitting just .172 and nearing 70 plate appearances, which in Counsell’s experience is a good sample.
“We want to get a productive player back,” Counsell said. “Sometimes you have to take a step back to do that. You obviously give guys time to work through it. But we just thought we saw enough where we need to kind of take a break from this level.”
The same concept applied to struggling reliever Nate Pearson (10.38 ERA), who was also optioned to Triple A before Tuesday’s 2-1 win over the San Diego Padres in 10 innings. Eli Morgan, who also had a role in Monday’s bullpen meltdown at Petco Park, was placed on the injured list with a right elbow impingement. To replace Pearson and Morgan, the Cubs promoted hard-throwing relievers Luke Little and Daniel Palencia from Iowa.
Taken together, these moves seemed to reflect a proactive approach to trying to squeeze more out of the roster, an outlook that could influence daily transactions, lineup decisions and even the calculus at the July 31 trade deadline.
“Every situation is individual,” Counsell said. “These are three individual stories. They just happened on the same day. We have an injury. We need a pitcher today, and Nate has been struggling a little bit. And then in Matt Shaw’s case, there comes a point where you just say: We’ve got to do something different.”
For now, the Cubs are going with utility player Vidal Bruján, who was activated from the injured list Tuesday, and Rule 5 pick Gage Workman. Jon Berti and Justin Turner can also mix in at third base, the only position where the Cubs went into the season without an established everyday player. That opening made Bregman a free-agent target for a big-market franchise with playoff aspirations.
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Once Bregman chose Boston, Shaw was positioned to make his major-league debut in the Tokyo Series, part of the gantlet of pitchers that included Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Tyler Glasnow and Dylan Cease.
“This league is unrelenting,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said.
Hoyer and Counsell stressed the goal is to bring Shaw back quickly after a Triple-A reset and get the impactful hitter they initially envisioned.
Looking back, Hoyer recalled how players such as Anthony Rizzo, Kyle Schwarber, Javier Báez and Ian Happ benefited from extra time in the minors (even if they all didn’t agree with those decisions at the time). Shaw can make mechanical adjustments with his leg kick and posture, but mostly this will allow him to exhale.
“You don’t want to see a point at which he’s just trying to survive at the plate,” Hoyer said. “Part of what makes him excellent is the exit velocities. He drives the ball. It felt like he probably was getting a little bit contact-oriented with some of the pitching we’re facing. We felt like that was an indication that maybe it’s more survival mode right now.”
(Photo: Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images)
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