Matt Shaw’s absence from the Chicago Cubs’ lineup on Sunday did not go unnoticed and has started to draw more attention after his previously undisclosed “personal matter” was revealed.
The rookie made the decision to skip the critical late-season game against the Cincinnati Reds — a 1-0 loss for Chicago – in order to attend the Arizona memorial service for late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen put a spotlight on the decision during Tuesday night’s game between New York and the Cubs, questioning Shaw’s call to leave his team at such a crucial point of the season.
Cohen attempted to walk a fine line while discussing the issue with colleague Todd Zeile, who played 16 seasons in the majors.
“Shaw had Cubs world in a tizzy this weekend when he was not here for the Cubs game with the Reds,” Cohen said during Shaw’s at-bat in the fourth inning. “Game they lost 1-0 and in which his lack of presence was felt.
“It was later revealed that he had been given permission to attend Charlie Kirk’s funeral. And I don’t want to talk about any of the politics of it, but the thought of leaving your team in the middle of a race for any reason other than a family emergency really strikes me as weird.”
“It’s unusual. I think it’s unprecedented, at least from my experience as a player,” Zeile replied. “And I think it made it a little bit more unusual that it was not revealed until after it came to issue because he was thought to be in the dugout and maybe available, and then was not. And that’s how it was revealed.
“So it became maybe more of a story than it could have been had it been addressed from the beginning.”
While Shaw spoke with manager Craig Counsell, team president Jed Hoyer, and several Cubs veterans, his absence left the team short-handed for the game. The team wasn’t able to replace Shaw on the roster because he did not qualify for placement on MLB’s bereavement list, as Kirk was not an immediate family member.
“But I thought it was telling that the reason that they didn’t tell anybody and that they had to play a man short was that the situation did not qualify for baseball’s bereavement list,” Cohen added. “I think that in and of itself gives you a clue as to how it was received by a lot of people.”
When Cohen asked if his status as a rookie played into the circumstances, Zeile said it would be unusual during his era (1989-2004) playing the game, before noting that “there was no paternity leave, there was no bereavement leave” when he was a player.
Shaw made the decision to attend the service after being invited by Kirk’s wife, Erika, and spoke about his absence with reporters in Chicago earlier this week.
“I made sure that everybody I talked to, I had their support, that they knew why I was going, that I wasn’t leaving just to leave, that it was something that was really important to my faith,” Shaw told the Chicago Tribune. “It was really nice to see how everyone was able to support me in that moment.
“I felt as though it was something that was really important for me to do … I was very thankful for how the team responded, allowing me to do that was really special.”
Charlie Kirk was a noted Cubs fan and Shaw said that he often received text messages from him during big moments of the season.