An integral piece of the Cubs' lineup has gone ice-cold of late

When Matt Shaw isn't playing, there's really no viable alternative on the Chicago Cubs' 26-man roster. It's nothing personal against Vidal Brujan, but he's best suited as a pinch runner late in a game. Maybe not quite Terrance Gore-level hopeless at the plate, but he's delivering a similar vibe these days.

(I will never - and I mean never forget being at Wrigley Field for the 2018 Wild Card game and being absolutely apalled that Gore took at at-bat and tried to do something other than bunt).

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Craig Counsell gave Brujan the start at third base on Saturday against Seattle, hoping to let his rookie infielder get right after a tough week at the plate. Over his last seven games, Shaw has one hit (1-for-23) and zero walks.

Cubs' rookie Matt Shaw has been scuffling in a big way at the dish

The last week has decimated Shaw's line since returning from his demotion to Triple-A. He's down to .247/.291/.361 since May 19 and the advanced metrics don't exactly inspire hope. He ranks in the bottom 2 percent of the league in hard hit rate and bottom 1 percent in average exit velocity. A complete lack of hard-hit balls is worrisome; that's not to say you can't find sucess poking the ball around the diamond (just ask Luis Arraez), but you'd like to see Shaw barreling some balls up now that he's been back for a full month.

But, like I said, part of the problem here is that, after low-balling Alex Bregman late in the offseason, the Cubs put themselves in an unenviable position - one that demands Shaw establishes himself as the answer at third base. Why? Because the other options on the roster have shown no clear upside offensively in Brujan (.457 OPS), Justin Turner (.544 OPS) and Jon Berti (.505 OPS) - the only guy with any sort of long-term ceiling is Shaw.

So with him struggling as badly as he is, there's not a good alternative for Counsell and the Cubs. They have to hope it's just part of the ups and downs that so often come with rookies' production and that he levels back off a bit in the weeks to come. If he doesn't, could the hot corner be added to Jed Hoyer's trade deadline to-do list? Time will tell - but the best-case scenario is, obviously, Shaw finding a rhythm and getting back on track.