Is Matt Shaw at peak value right now?
It's all downhill from here, Cubs.
Baseball free agency has started, and I'm sure Carter Hawkins is camped out in the parking lot of whatever hair transplant center that Ian Happ is being reseeded at.
The Cubs should be heavily active in the one month that will make up this entire offseason, but they shouldn't only be focused on free agents.
They should also be laser focused on trading Matt Shaw.
Shaw is, at least to this point, one of the Cubs' rare draft successes. Of course he checks all of the boxes of every good player they have drafted since 2012.
He was a first round pick.
He played at a major college.
He's a position player.
He's white.
Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Happ (sigh), Nico Hoerner, Matt Shaw.
That's the list.
Well, it's the list until Cade Horton returns from his second bout of Tommy John Disease. Even then, Cade only checks three of the four boxes, unless he starts playing right field, which, given the Cubs' projected roster he might need to.
Shaw made a quick progression through the minors (just like Bryant, Schwarber, Happ, Nico, and Horton). A pessimist would say that the longer you spend in the Cubs' farm system, the worst you get. The one exception to that would be Justin Steele who ended up pretty good despite needing SEVEN seasons in the minors before he made his debut.
The Cubs don't really develop players. They show up and either they can play (Kris Bryant) or they never get better (Albert Almora).
But Shaw played just two seasons (159 games) in the minors before he broke in on Opening Day 2025. He struggled early in his first season and had to change his fucked up batting stance like three times before he could actually hit.
