ST. LOUIS – During the All-Star break, Matt Shaw went up to his family’s lakehouse in upstate New York. The Chicago Cubs had not started Shaw in the three games before the break, giving him time to mentally and mechanically adjust while he was in the midst of deep struggles.
While out by the lake, Shaw spent time with his wife and dog, relaxing and regaining what he feels was the proper perspective on life.
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“I realized when I was sitting there that this is really peaceful,” Shaw said. “This is what makes me happy. At the end of the day, if this is all I got, I’m going to be OK. That was really nice to remember.”
Shaw finally saw that he’d allowed himself to get distracted from what was really important in both life and the game he loves.
“You get to the big leagues and think, ‘If I do well, I can get a contract and do all these things,’” Shaw said. “Well, that wasn’t my motivation before. And I remembered it’s still not my motivation now. It was nice to have that perspective and now I just go and play.”
Shaw has played incredibly well since the break. Entering play on Sunday, only three players with at least 50 plate appearances had a better wRC+ than his 207. His hot stretch continued in Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals as he went 1-for-4, slugging his seventh homer since the break. Only six players have more long balls over that stretch.
As well as Shaw has been playing, it’s clear that his teammates are fighting to find the consistency they had early in the season.
“It’s something that you learn pretty quickly in this game,” Shaw said. “You just gotta trust the process with everything. We’re in a spot right now where we’re going through it and trying to trust the process.”
Despite outhitting the Cardinals 8-4, the Cubs went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven runners on base. The group has to believe that trusting the process will get them back on track. It’s something that must happen quickly as their division hopes start to fade. Another Milwaukee Brewers victory — their ninth in a row — puts the Cubs six games back of a division they led by 6 1/2 games not even two months ago.
But Shaw’s turnaround is evidence that things can shift quickly in this game.
For a team that was rumored to be searching for a third baseman at the deadline, Matt Shaw has made that talk seem silly. (Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)
“I think we should all be really proud of what Matt’s done this year,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He was hit in the face in the big leagues, (you see) how tough it is to be a hitter in the big leagues and survived it.”
Shaw’s mental adjustment wasn’t the only change he made. He also tweaked his mechanics. During the break, he watched an old video of himself and saw that in the Cape Cod League and college, his hands were higher. That felt comfortable, so he went back to that. In his first game after the break, he experimented with a more open stance. That “felt right, then it worked,” Shaw said, so he stuck with it.
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“Matt’s always going to be a bit of a tinkerer mechanically,” Counsell said. “It’s going to look different from time to time. We’ve seen enough different stances this year that you know you’re going to see that throughout his career. But it’s just this journey of getting better. He’s comfortable trying new things and hearing new things to make him better. If you keep doing that, whether it looks a little bit different some days, that’s great.”
All seven of his home runs since the break have gone to the pull side. While Shaw has an impressive ability to drive the ball the other way, pulling the ball in the air is an important skill. Before Sunday, Shaw’s fly-ball rate had gone from 35 percent in the first half to 43.5 percent in the second. His pull rate had jumped from 31.7 percent to 51.1 percent.
“When I’m being really aggressive and on time, you throw me a pitch middle or inside, I can get it out front and hit it pull side,” Shaw said. “It’s more of a mindset. Not trying to pull the ball, not trying to hit in the air, just being really aggressive to the point where I won’t be late. I’m making sure I’ll be on time.”
For a team that was rumored to be searching for a third baseman at the deadline, Shaw has made that talk seem silly. His glove has been brilliant all season long, and his bat has finally caught up. The toughness Shaw showed to find himself in his current spot is something the team as a whole could use as they try to pull themselves out of their recent struggles and get back in the division race.
“The resiliency to continue to search for and know success is in there is an important trait,” Counsell said. “One you need to be successful. He’s done that. You don’t get defeated and beat, you just keep coming to work to try to find better answers. I think Matt’s continued to do that no matter what’s going on. It’s a sign of a good player. Now, some of the offensive talent that we all knew was in there is starting to come out a little more.”
(Top photo: Jeff Le / Getty Images)
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