With both Tyler Austin and Jonathon Long dealing with injuries, non-roster invitee Chas McCormick has gained an inside track on an Opening Day role with the Cubs. McCormick, 30, is a seasoned veteran with ample experience in center field, and he bats right-handed, so he can (at least theoretically) swap in to shield starting center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong from tough matchups against left-handed pitchers. McCormick also hit a ball 110.8 miles per hour off Angels starter José Soriano in a game last week, harder than any he’s hit in a big-league game in his career.

However, he’s also come into camp swinging rather desperately, trying to create flashes just like that double against the Angels but not demonstrating the improved approach he needs to succeed sustainably. He’s swung at 43 of the 71 pitches he’s seen this spring—almost 61% of them. A whopping 19 of those swings have been whiffs or foul tips. He might make the team purely because of his defensive utility, but he’s not truly showing that he’s ready to regain his footing at the plate, after batting .211/.273/.301 since the start of 2024.

That makes the lineup Craig Counsell wrote Tuesday against Team Italy important. Matt Shaw, who had previously made three starts in right field and two each at second and third base, patrolled center field in the exhibition game leading into the World Baseball Classic. He was neither notably good nor a disaster there, and he also got two hits in the game—though he made a baserunning mistake (not his first of the spring, and an increasingly sore subject for Counsell). It’s just one game, so it’s far, far too early to make any kind of assessment. The simple fact of his standing out there, however, carries some heavy implications.

If the Cubs can get Shaw more reps in center over the fortnight for which Pete Crow-Armstrong will be absent from camp, and if he shows himself to be capable there, the roster math changes. The team claimed infielder Ben Cowles from the Blue Jays on Sunday, the third time they’ve acquired him. They first dealt for Cowles at the 2024 trade deadline, when they shipped Mark Leiter Jr. to the Yankees, and after losing him on waivers to the White Sox last September, they reclaimed him in January—only to waive and lose him again in February, then scoop him up once more to open March.

Cowles, 26, can be optioned to the minors, but as the four times he’s been waived in the last six months attest, he’s a fringe guy. If McCormick does assert himself as a solid candidate for the roster, he’ll need a spot on the 40-man reserve list, and Cowles could easily be the casualty. However, the Cubs wouldn’t keep bringing him in if they didn’t like some of the things Cowles does. He’s a solid defender at shortstop, second base and third base. He’s not a good hitter, but he has a modicum of both speed and pop—though the latter would be muted at the big-league level.

If Shaw keeps playing center field and looks good there, the chances of the team making him the backup center fielder and letting Cowles (rather than McCormick) take up the final spot on the roster. Even better, perhaps, would be the scenario in which Pedro Ramirez—unlike Cowles, a good contact-oriented hitter who also hits from both sides of the plate—claims that utility infield role. 

Unless Shaw can handle center, the team needs a righty-batting guy who will do so, not only to insure them against an injury to Crow-Armstrong but to give them someone who can hit lefties at that position. McCormick, Dylan Carlson, Justin Dean and Kevin Alcántara are all auditioning for that job, but none has come into camp looking so good as to make the decision clear. If they have to give one of their bench spots to one of those guys, Shaw will be the utility infielder, with occasional time in right field mixed in. The results of the converted third baseman’s trial in center, then, will determine from which pool the team selects the last member of their bench cohort.