Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson stopped on his way to the batting cages Monday afternoon to chat with first-round pick Matt Shaw.
“He’s a really, really good guy,” Shaw said. “Someone that I’m going to definitely look up to a little more now that I’ve gotten to know him – I mean, I’ve only had two conversations with him. But I look forward to getting to know him a little bit more and watch how he goes about his business.”
Swanson was one of the first to welcome Shaw to the organization. Their first conversation played out the first night of the draft. Swanson texted Shaw to congratulate him, and Shaw called him. On Monday, Shaw visited Wrigley Field for the first time to witness a defining point of the Cubs season.
The high stakes of the homestand didn’t dictate the timing. The Cubs were hosting their No. 13 overall draft pick days after he agreed to terms with the club, signing at slot value ($4,848,500 bonus). But it set up, in a tangible way, the balancing act of keeping “one eye on the present and one eye on the future,” something president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has talked about a lot in recent years.
The next couple weeks will tell which side the scales will favor at the Aug. 1 trade deadline. The team is teetering on the edge of falling out of contention. And they didn’t help their standing over the weekend when they lost the three-game series against the Reds Sox, Shaw’s hometown team, two games to one.
“I would have loved to be here with the Sox [in town,]” he said. “It would have been really cool, but it just didn’t work out.”
Shaw put himself on MLB teams’ radars with steady growth over his three years at Maryland. In addition to shortstop, Shaw can also play second base, third and all three outfield positions. His slug improved every year, and he honed his plate discipline.
For the latter, Shaw gave credit to former Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, the bench coach for Shaw’s Cape Cod league team last summer, for helping him refine his approach.
“We talked about what type of pitches to sit on in what counts,” Shaw said, “and he was the one who advised me, ‘Hey, maybe we should sit on offspeed a little bit less.’”
Shaw was named the Cape Cod League MVP that year. And this spring he took home the Brooks Wallace Award, which honors the top collegiate shortstop, and Big Ten Player of the Year award. Now, he has his sights set on another steep trajectory.
“I wanted to be on a team that I thought would move me up and give me the opportunity to fail early, learn, to get my footing through playing against really good competition,” he said on draft night, “moving up to double-A, moving up to the majors.”
Look at the Cubs’ recent track record with first-round college position players. Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Ian Happ and Nico Hoerner all debuted within two years of being drafted.
“He’s got a pretty advanced bat, so I wouldn’t be surprised,” Cubs vice president of scouting Dan Kantrovitz said when asked if the Cubs would push Shaw aggressively up the ladder, “but it’s too early to start to get into that.”
However long it takes him to get to the big-leagues, Shaw got a glimpse into his possible future on Monday. He met manager David Ross and told the former Red Sox catcher about his affinity for Boston. He talked with Swanson for a couple minutes in the bowels of the stadium. He made his way to the dugout, where a scrum of cameras and reporters awaited him.
From the bench, craned his neck to peer over heads and the railing and get his first good look at the field.
“Probably right here right now,” he said when asked the most surreal part since the draft. “Being here, being at the field, being in the dugout, being with you guys. Being able to just talk to Dansby, David Ross, all those guys, that is very surreal.”