There's already a clear path to playing time for Matt Shaw with the Cubs in 2025

Top Chicago Cubs prospect Matt Shaw has very little left to prove in the minor leagues. Since being drafted in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft, the former University of Maryland standout carries a .303/.384/.522 slash line across nearly 700 plate appearances.

Capable of playing multiple infield positions, Shaw ranks as the #22 prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline. Naturally, fans are wondering when we'll see him at Wrigley Field and the simple answer needs to be sooner rather than later.

But with an infield picture that seems fairly locked in, with Isaac Paredes, Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner and Michael Busch penciled in from left to right, some have openly asked how Craig Counsell could find regular ABs for Shaw. But this tweet tells you exactly how simple it could be heading into a critical 2025 season.

You can easily make the case that none of the players mentioned above should be on the Opening Day roster next March. Even cutting two or three of them (which could very well happen as the Cubs work through their 14 arbitration cases next month) would open up several hundred at-bats for Shaw throughout the season.

I don't know about you, but I'd much rather be turning to Shaw off the bench than Mastrobuoni, Bote or Madrigal on any given day. As Greg noted in his post on X, this would allow him to learn the ins and outs of big-league life without being counted on as a key contributor on a day in, day out basis.

That doesn't mean you have to roll with a bench made up entirely of rookies - but given how the roster is constructed, letting prospects like Shaw or Kevin Alcantara, who we saw late in the year, take a couple of those spots makes perfect sense. Make no mistake. There's a path to playing time for these up-and-coming prospects - and the Cubs can't get much worse production from the bench than they did in 2024.