If you turn on a Maryland baseball game, there’s a decent chance you’ll witness Matt Shaw smash a baseball well over the elevated center field fence of Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium.
But a new development you might observe is the junior shortstop snagging a line drive that was seemingly out of reach, making a diving stop up the middle or going deep into the hole, hurling the ball across his body and throwing out the runner at first.
The 5-foot-11 Shaw flashing the glove is just another element of his five-tool repertoire. But this level of defensive prowess wasn’t always the case.
In his freshman season, coach Rob Vaughn moved the inexperienced Shaw all across the diamond, trying to find the most natural position for one of his most talented bats. Shaw started out at third base, where Vaughn was convinced he was attempting to “set the record” for most errors in a season. The coach then moved him to left field before eventually settling on second base, where he called his play “unbelievable.”
After the conclusion of his freshman season, Shaw called the coach and told him he wanted to try out shortstop. Vaughn said he’d give him some reps there but never gave much thought to a permanent move across the middle infield.
“Being truthful with him –– and I’ve told him this since then –– I said, ‘I was doing that to appease you’,” Vaughn said, “‘and I was just going to put you back over at second base when it was time for you to go back over there.’ And he just won the job. He worked his tail off.”
Lots of Shaw’s hard work is done in the offseason, where he focuses on a variety of fielding techniques, footwork, arm strength and hand-eye coordination. The hour-long days spent honing his craft include on-field drills and training of specific techniques that play a big role once he takes the field during the season.
“Everyday shortstop is a tough position,” Shaw said. “That’s why it’s so much fun. There’s a lot that goes into it. It’s something I take a lot of pride in.”
Shaw’s incremental improvements in the field are backed up by the numbers.
In his freshman campaign, Shaw recorded a .938 fielding percentage with 1.3 putouts per game and 2.0 assists per game. In his sophomore campaign those numbers improved to a .949 fielding percentage, 1.6 putouts per game and 2.7 assists per game. As a junior, he is currently sporting a .969 fielding percentage and a tick over three assists a game through 19 games.
Vaughn believes the shortstop has improved key parts of his fielding, such as picking the right hops on grounders and using his arm to reach across the diamond. The coach has seen Shaw’s feel for the game and the events around him take massive leaps from two years ago. But most of all, as the captain of the infield and at times the whole on-field unit, Vaughn said his star’s commanding presence and poise as a leader has been enormous.
“He’s doing a lot of that stuff at a really, really high level,” Vaughn said. “And when you can do that, you know, in addition to what he brings to the plate offensively, that’s when you get a special player that’s going to carry our team here.”
Even with his substantial defensive improvements, pro evaluators question Shaw’s case to be a shortstop at the highest level. According to MLB.com’s 2023 MLB Draft prospect rankings, which has Shaw listed as the No. 20 prospect in the draft, most scouts “feel his arm will push him to second long-term.” Shaw’s arm strength is his lowest-rated attribute in the scouting report, grading out as below average.
“I mean, that’s helpful insight for me,” Shaw said. “They’re making those decisions based on the summer, based on the fall. And I had two, three, four months to work on that stuff. So, you know, over a long period of time like that, obviously it can grow, it can get better. And I think it has. Come June and July, I think it’s gonna be a much different conversation about being able to play there.”
Where Shaw is selected in the July draft will ultimately answer the validity to the questions surrounding his fielding. Until then, he will continue to believe he is a big league shortstop, as will his coach.
“I think he’s heard pro scouts, he’s heard a lot of people tell him he’s not a shortstop,” Vaughn said. “And I think that’s the beauty of Matt Shaw. That guy thinks he’s a big league shortstop, and there’s nothing that’s gonna get in his way of doing that.”
