Coming off the worst season of his career, one that forced the Milwaukee Brewers to non-tender the 29-year-old infielder earlier this month rather than pay him around $5 million in salary for 2020, the Blue Jays believe Shaw is closer to the 30-homer left-handed bat he was in 2017 and 2018 than one of the worst hitters in baseball, which is exactly what he was this past season.
There’s no getting around the fact Shaw was bad — really bad — in 2019, slashing just .157/.281/.270 with seven home runs in 270 trips to the plate, output that earned the five-year veteran a pair of trips to Triple-A.
But prior to cratering in his age-29 season, Shaw had been worth a total of 7.1 fWAR — 3.5 in ’17 and 3.6 in ’18 — and had posted back-to-back 30-homer campaigns for the Brew Crew, helping further the nickname Mayor of Ding Dong City, a moniker given to him during his time with the Boston Red Sox, the club that drafted him in the ninth round of the 2011 draft out of Kent State University.
With the Brewers pivoting to former Blue Jay Justin Smoak at first base this week, the Jays and Shaw were an obvious match.
If Shaw can rediscover his stroke in 2020, he’ll help lengthen a Blue Jays lineup that has just one other left-handed hitter, Cavan Biggio, slated to hit in the top half of manager Charlie Montoyo’s lineup.
The plan is to play Shaw at first base almost every day, but he can also move around to third base — his best position at plus-26 Defensive Runs Saved over his career — and second base on occasion.
That versatility gives Montoyo the ability to use Guerrero Jr. more as the DH, especially if versatile infielder Brandon Drury struggles with the bat in spring training and doesn’t make the club.
Another aspect drawing the Jays to Shaw is the fact he’s still arbitration eligible in 2021, giving them another year of team control at a reasonable cost if he does, indeed, rebound.
If that happens, you could make the case it would be in the best interest of the club to flip-flop Shaw and Vladdy Jr. by opening day 2021 in order to make the most out of the veteran's glove and let the kid start getting used to the spot most believe will end up being his long-term position in the not so distant future anyway.
Even with the versatility, cheap price tag, and past history of big-league production, Shaw, unsurprisingly, does come with some warts.