Could this Chicago Cubs standout star be the front runner to take home a valuable award for his potential successful 2025 season?
The Chicago Cubs figure to be one of the better teams this season in the National League and could possibly win the National League Central title this season which they haven’t won since 2017. The acquisitions they’ve made thus far like adding superstar outfielder and 3x All-Star Kyle Tucker who they got in a trade with the Houston Astros is an example of the ‘win-now’ mentality the Cubs appear to have for this season.
Since the Cubs are projected to be one of the better teams, they could have a lot of their players bring home a ton of accolades for them this season, with this future standout star showing to be and early front runner to take home the Rookie of the Year award.
Could the Chicago Cubs have the next Rookie of the Year?
In a recent article published by MLB.com Jonathan Mayo who polled MLB executives on who they think will win this upcoming seasons Rookie of the Year award for both the American and National Leagues and the Chicago Cubs potential future third basemen and top prospect Matt Shaw finished second in the polling getting 18.8 percent of the vote. Shaw finished behind the Washington Nationals outfield Dylan Crews who got an overwhelming 50 percent of the vote to win the award.
The Cubs plan on having Matt Shaw compete this spring training for the starting third base job with them possibly bringing in a veteran to compete with Shaw for the job with them being linked to possibly signing former Chicago White Sox infielder Yoán Moncada to compete since President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer stating that Shaw:
“has to earn the job”
The 23-years-old Matt Shaw is more than capable at not only winning the third base job out of spring training for the Cubs, also overtake Dylan Crews and steal away the Rookie of the Year award from him. Splitting his time between Double and Triple-A last season in which he played in 121 games, Shaw had 126 hits, 19 doubles, 4 triples, 21 HRs, with a slash line of .284/.379/.488/ with and OPS of .867.
Shaw who is primarily a shortstop and drafted as one (playing 24 total games there) will get the Alex Bregman treatment with the Cubs as it appears and move off the position he has known and had success in for years for a new endeavor at third base.
Durning this winter Matt Shaw had the opportunity to play with Team USA in the Premier12 Tournament where he went off the rails. In a Team USA game over the Netherlands Shaw managed to go 4-5 with 7 RBIs also stealing 2 bases in their route against the Netherlands with a score of 12-2. With those numbers Matt Shaw went on to tie the Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. with driving in 7 runs in a game.
Matt Shaw will have success in the Major Leagues
I firmly believe that Matt Shaw will succeed in spring training and be the Chicago Cubs Opening Day third basemen. I also firmly believe that the Cubs have the next Alex Bregman on their hands in Shaw with how similar both Shaw and Bregman’s games are to each other. If Matt Shaw can develop into the player Alex Bregman has been in his future Hall of Fame career, then the Cubs will have a solid third base option for the next decade and that could all start with Shaw winning this year’s National League Rookie of the Year.
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