Prospect Gage Workman Gets Chance At Third Base For Chicago Cubs

Chicago Cubs prospect Gage Workman will be getting more playing time at third base, replacing prospect Matt Shaw. Workman worked his way into the chance. Shaw is back at Triple-A Iowa after flubbing his.

Workman didn’t knock on the door to a roster spot in spring training. He knocked it down. The 25-year-old hit .364 (16-for-44) with four homers and 15 RBI. His RBI total tied Texas Rangers veteran Joc Pederson for fourth among the 1,698 players who appeared in an MLB spring game.

“Gage has had a tremendous camp,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said in mid-March. “We’ll see where that goes.”

The baseball often goes over the fence when Workman’s smooth swing makes contact. Thus far in 2025 much has gone exceedingly well for Workman, who was selected from the Detroit Tigers in the 2024 Rule 5 Draft in December.

The Tigers were frustrated with Workman’s high strikeout totals. The Cubs looked at the 6-4, 200-pounder’s raw athleticism and took a chance, knowing that to keep him in the organization he would have to stay on the big-league roster for the entire 2025 season or be offered back to Detroit.

The Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers both liked Workman’s athletic ability enough to draft him. Milwaukee picked him in the 17th round out of high school in 2017. He went to Arizona State instead of signing and Detroit took him in the fourth round in 2020.

In four years in the Tigers’ farm system, Workman had 111 doubles, 57 homers and 110 stolen bases. He also had 655 strikeouts, including a downright embarrassing 206 in 128 games at Double-A Erie in 2022 when he hit only .225.

Last year at Erie, he cut the strikeouts to 153 in 126 games and hit .280 with 18 homers and 30 steals.

Workman told Patrick Mooney of The Athletic that he tried to stay positive.

“Throughout all the minor leagues, you’re always like, ‘I’m a big-leaguer,’” Workman said. “You tell yourself over and over, ‘I’m a big-leaguer. I can play at that level.’ You have to have that belief in yourself.

“It wasn’t necessarily that (the Tigers) said I was or I wasn’t. It usually doesn’t work like that in most cases. It was believing in myself all the way through.”

‘Tater’ Can Mash

Workman’s actual middle name is Tater. He told Mooney that was his grandfather’s nickname.

Tater also is a baseball colloquial for home run. The term was popularized by Boston Red Sox slugger George Scott. He hit 271 “taters” from 1966 until 1979, including 27 as a rookie. His career best was 36 in 1975 with Milwaukee.

Scott was remarkably nimble for a 6-2, 220-pound first baseman and won eight gold gloves.

Workman is regarded as a fine defensive third baseman. He has also played shortstop and Counsell used him in the outfield this spring. Scouts have always ranked him highly for his fielding and throwing arm.

Throws Right, Bats Left

That describes Workman and only about 20 percent of the men to play third base in MLB history, not including switch-hitters. It is not all that common. Yet those who have succeeded have been among the best.

Hall of Famer Jim Thome fit the description for 492 games. He played many more at first base and designated hitter, however. Among those who played mostly at third and excelled were sluggers Darrell Evans and Graig Nettles – along with Hall of Famers John McGraw, Frank (Home Run) Baker, Wade Boggs, George Brett and Eddie Mathews.

Evans cranked out 414 homers from 1969 until 1989, drawing nearly 200 more walks than strikeouts for the Braves, Giants and Tigers. Nettles hit 390 homers between 1967 and 1988 for six teams including the New York Yankees for 11 seasons. Neither had the raw athleticism of Workman, but both had better approaches at the plate that kept them around for a couple decades.

McGraw, before becoming a legendary manager, was quite a hitter for 10 years until a knee injury made him a part-timer for seven more after 1900. He hit only 13 homers in 1,100 games. But look at his last two seasons with the National League’s Baltimore Orioles in 1898-99: 283 runs, 236 RBI, 116 steals and a .363 average in 260 games.

Baker got his nickname for leading the AL with 11, 10, 12, and 9 homers in 1911-14 for the Philadelphia Athletics. He hit 96 overall from 1909 through 1922. He also hit .307 with 991 RBI and 235 steals.

Boggs was a throwback to Baker’s time. He hit only 118 homers from 1982 through 1999, with 24 coming in one season. One was his 3,000th hit. He won five batting titles with the Boston Red Sox and had a remarkable 1,412 walks with only 745 strikeouts. He totaled 1,513 runs, 3,010 hits.

Brett had power and speed, winning three batting titles and leading the AL in triples three times. From 1973 until 1993 for the Kansas City Royals, he amassed 3,154 hits, 1,583 runs, 1,596 RBI, 317 homers, 201 steals and a .305 batting average.

Mathews, often overshadowed by Braves teammates Henry Aaron and Warren Spahn, was the first person on the cover of Sports Illustrated on Aug. 16, 1954. That was the only year in a 10-season span he didn’t make the NL All-Star Team. Still, he hit .290 with 40 homers and 103 RBI that year. Mathews belted 512 homers with 1,509 runs, 1,453 RBI and a .271 average from 1952 through 1968.

How To Gauge Gage Workman

If he makes contact at the plate, Workman should be a fan favorite in Chicago. He’s a hard worker, can run, throw, and hit for power. If he does not improve his pitch recognition, however, the boo birds will let him hear it from the bleachers in Wrigley Field.

The Cubs have much invested in Shaw, signed for $4,484,500 after being the 13th overall pick in 2023. They will not simply give up on him. He hit .271 with 21 homers and 31 steals at age 22 in the minors a year ago. In 18 MLB games this year, he hit .172, and so he has been sent back for remedial work.

Veteran Justin Turner is also playing some third base for the Cubs. He’s hitting .156 and is age 40. His future is past. It is Shaw who is going to get every chance to be the Cubs’ future third baseman.

Gage Workman has a chance now to show he can deliver at the plate. If he does, the team will find a place for him somewhere in the lineup at third, the outfield or DH.