Carter Hawkins: Cubs see 'encouraging signs' in Matt Shaw's play despite early struggles

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Transcript

00:00So let's talk about Matt Shaw for a moment because I think there's a lot of focus on

00:04and hope that he is going to be a guy that is the everyday third baseman this season.

00:10He's not great at the plate so far, hitting just 170, but he is getting on base

00:15because he's walked 10 times.

00:17How do you balance one against the other, Carter?

00:19And what are reasonable expectations for Matt Shaw?

00:23And also how much patience is the front office and maybe Craig Council going to have?

00:30Yeah, I mean, I think from a broad scope, you know, we're trying to win baseball games

00:33and so we're going to try to make decisions to put our best team out there.

00:37But what Matt's done really well is he's played great defense

00:39and I think there's a lot of encouraging signs at the plate.

00:42I think you mentioned the plate discipline.

00:44That's certainly been good, his ability to get on base.

00:47And I think he's taken better swings over the last week

00:49and he's seen some really good arms.

00:51He's seen some really good arms and some really not great hitter-friendly weather

00:55and, you know, hopefully over the course of, you know, the next weeks and months

01:00that he'll be able to slow things down a little bit

01:02and get back to his natural talent.

01:04I expect that will happen.

01:05But I think you look at all the young players around the league

01:08and just the adjustment it is to go up to the big leagues so quickly,

01:11it's really, really difficult.

01:13And I think the fact that we're seeing some progress here is encouraging

01:16and we'll continue to play that out.