The Chicago Cubs have gone a long way in shoring up their pitching staff and outfield. They even went out and secured a quality backup catcher to shore things up there.
However, while they’ve been tending to other matters, their bread and butter infield appears to have taken a beaten, leaving some holes and some strained patches.
Chicago Cubs Falling Apart From Within?
For instance, the sure thing second baseman, Nico Hoerner, is not such a sure thing anymore. He underwent flexor tendon surgery in October and has no set date for his return. Typical full recovery time for that type of procedure is three months, but there’s no guarantee for when Hoerner will be field-ready.
At first base, the trade of Cody Bellinger and Matt Mervis have taken all backups from behind first baseman Michael Busch. There is, pretty much literally, nobody to turn to should Busch get injured or, worse, fall into a fatal slump.
Then, there’s third base, which turned into a virtual sink hole following the trade of Isaac Paredes to the Houston Astros in the Kyle Tucker deal.
So, now, as we head towards spring training, second base and third base are question marks, with Miles Mastrobuoni, Gage Workman, and Vidal Bruján as the only options from the 40-man roster to fill those two slots.
That’s not good.
Meanwhile, Matt Shaw…
The Matt Shaw Show?
Shaw, the 23-year-old offensive beast has batted his way into top prospect status in the loaded Cubs farm system, running through every level of the organization since Chicago made him a first round draft pick in 2023.
The kid really is THAT good. Even MLB.com went to the highest mountaintop with a “He has no discernible weakness” assessment of his offensive prowess in their scouting report.
If there is a weakness in Shaw’s game, though, it’s defense. And even that’s not really an earth-rattling, hope-dashing blast at the young talent. He’s good on defense. Somewhere around average-to-solid, with experience at shortstop, second base, third base, and the outfield.
Recently, major league necessity had him positioned at third in the minors and, immediately after Paredes was traded, the story became “Matt Shaw is headed to the bigs; He’s going to play third base.”
What If He Isn’t The Guy?
But there’s no guarantee that Shaw’s first run in the major leagues will stick. And, since the Cubs front office has thus far failed to bring in a quality, second base and/or third base adept, backup infielder, a lot is falling on Shaw’s shoulders.
As Chris Landers of Fansided recently wrote:
“But even a hotly anticipated prospect is still a prospect, and there’s no telling just how Shaw will respond to his first taste of Major League action. That’s why Hoyer was clearly interested in adding at least one more veteran infielder to the mix this offseason, so that Shaw could have a bit of runway before being handed the third-base job.
Now that runway is all but gone…it sure looks like the Cubs will head to camp next month with Shaw penciled in as the guy at the hot corner. Maybe he’s up for it, but that’s asking a whole lot of a rookie stepping in to a team with postseason-or-bust expectations in 2025.”
And, yeah, that’s a lot of pressure for a 23-year-old– even a 23-year-old baseball stud who’s never tasted failure as a professional ball player.
The Cubs will need to get a quality insurance policy via free agency or trade or risk watching their well-constructed team collapse from within.
Chicago Cubs-San Diego Padres Trade Proposal: A Path to the World Series
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