Cubs first-rounder Shaw ready to get to work

CHICAGO -- Matt Shaw was sitting at home with his family on July 9 waiting to see where he’d land in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft. Suddenly he received a text from his agent that excitedly stated, “Let’s go!”

There was only one problem -- Shaw didn’t get any context beyond that. In fact, he had no idea the text was in response to the Cubs picking him with the 13th overall selection, and he didn’t come to that realization until hearing his name called during the Draft broadcast.

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Eight days later, Shaw was sitting in the Cubs’ dugout at Wrigley Field, trying to soak in the experience of being introduced as Chicago’s first-round pick.

“Being here, being at the field,” Shaw said, “being in the dugout, being able to talk to [Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson], [manager] David Ross, all those guys, that is very surreal. … From what I hear about Wrigley, being out here and knowing the history and knowing what it’s all about, that’s the type of franchise you want to play for.”

Ironically, Shaw -- who officially signed with the Cubs for $4,848,500 on Sunday -- had never been to Wrigley Field before. The 21-year-old spent a chunk of his introductory presser craning his neck around reporters, trying to catch his first glimpse of a field he hopes to be playing on in the not-so-distant future.

Should he put up the kind of numbers he displayed during his final season with the University of Maryland, that moment won’t be too long of a wait for him. Shaw wrapped up his college career by slashing .341/.445/.697 and slugging 24 homers, with his 44th career home run breaking the school’s record on April 26.

It’s the kind of reputation that caught the attention of someone he hopes to be managed by in the near future.

“He bangs,” Ross said. “That’s the main thing that stood out to me. He can really hit. An off-the-charts character-type guy, which is really important in our organization.”

For now, Shaw is planning to “go fail with the best of them” as soon as he can. In his eyes, getting the chance to experience the ups and downs of baseball as quickly as possible will be what expedites his journey to the bigs.

“Baseball is such a game of failure,” Shaw said. “For me, there’s two ways to look at failure: Either there’s so much failure that there’s a lot of pressure on the player, or you look at it as there’s so much failure that everybody is failing.

“In college, people hit .350 and .400, and that’s normal. In the big leagues, people hit .250 and .300, and that’s really good. Obviously, there’s a lot of different pressures that I don’t understand yet when it comes to the fans, the community and everything that I’ll eventually learn. But when it comes to baseball itself, people are failing a lot more in the big leagues than they are in college. For me, it’s a great opportunity to go and learn and fail and see what you can make of it. If you’re not the type of player that’s going to learn and take feedback, you’re not going to last in baseball very long.”

The introductory presser wrapped up a whirlwind few days for Shaw. Just over a week ago, he was trying to decipher an elated, yet unclear message from his agent. Now he was getting his first look at what he hopes to one day call his home ballpark. That he was donning his very own Cubs uniform was itself a noteworthy moment for Shaw, considering what he initially listed as the first item he’d buy for himself after being drafted.

“Someone asked me that in one of my first interviews,” Shaw said, “and I said ‘A Chicago Cubs jersey.’ It was a terrible answer, because they’re like, ‘You’re gonna get one of those in the future.’”

That he did, and he hopes it won’t be long before he’s wearing it again in the same dugout.