Every year, fantasy baseball drafters and fantasy sports drafters in general are looking for the next big thing. The shiny new toy.

Who’s this year's Jackson Merrill or Jackson Chourio or Colton Cowser? My belief is Matt Shaw has the ability to be that and is currently third in terms of Rookie of the Year odds in the National League on FanDuel.

 

 

 

Matt Shaw Stats

There’s a lot to like about Matt Shaw and despite a tough Opening Day showing against the Dodgers going 0-4 in his debut, he hit fifth for the Cubs. His profile as a hitter is quite impressive and that’s why he ranks so highly across Major League Baseball’s top prospect lists. Out of 60 grade:

  • Hit tool: 55
  • Power tool: 55
  • Speed: 60

We’ve seen that play out in the minor leagues, too. Across 121 games at Double and Triple-A last year, Matt Shaw hit .284 with 21 home runs, 71 RBI, 78 R, and 31 SB. He has not really struck out at any level and took a massive leap in the patience department walking just 5.3% of the time in 2023 and it was 11.9% in ‘24.

His positional eligibility is truly impressive as he’s a 3B, SS, and 2B on Yahoo! Fantasy and ESPN. You can plug him in everywhere! He broke camp as the Cubs’ starting third baseman after trading Isaac Paredes and not signing anyone in free agency. The one thing you could potentially be concerned with is the projected games played plenty of different projection sites have him at:

 

 

 

Matt Shaw Fantasy 2025

With Shaw opening the year as the starter, there’s no reason to think his games played would be this low unless he struggles mightily out of the gate and with how well his batted ball skills are and upside truly is, I’d bet the over.

He’s actually an ADP faller, which is interesting because the trend after the team didn’t sign Alex Bregman was that this is Shaw’s job to lose. According to NFC ADP, from January 1st to the end of February, he was the 20th third baseman off the board and was at 215.37 ADP and from March 1st until March 18th, he’s the 22nd third baseman off the board and his ADP is 239.74. 

Being able to wait basically two extra rounds to grab Shaw is extremely valuable if that’s where his ADP stays from now until the end of draft season. You can count on one hand how many third baseman have 20 home run, and 20 stolen base upside and Shaw is one of them. That’s the 22nd third baseman off the board and is one of the only players at the position that could accomplish that feat. 

 

 

 

Fantasy Baseball Projections 2025: Matt Shaw

It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, but Matt Chapman hit 27 home runs and stole 15 stolen bases and finished as the third ranked third baseman in fantasy baseball this year. There’s a chance Shaw hits 20 bombs and swipes 30 bases, and in that scenario, he’s a top-five finisher at the position.

Shaw’s upside at a position with a lot of question marks, even within the top-10 of the position, is as good as it’s going to get in the round, you’d draft him in. Leave your fantasy baseball drafts with Matt Shaw, and you may have a league winner at year's end.