CHICAGO — Matt Shaw earned a spot in the big leagues on Opening Day, but that didn’t afford him a long runway in Chicago.

The Cubs were aggressive in sending their top prospect back down to the minor leagues, optioning Shaw to Triple-A Iowa on April 15 after only 18 games in the majors.

Since then, the Cubs have patched together the third base position with Gage Workman (who has since been designated for assignment), Jon Berti, Nicky Lopez and Vidal Bruján.

That combination has not produced at a high level for the Cubs, who lead Major League Baseball with eight errors from the third base position.

Meanwhile, Shaw has started to lock back in at the plate in the minors, hitting .318/.423/.477 (.900 OPS) over the last 11 games.

But the Cubs aren’t looking to rush Shaw back to the big leagues. They sent him down for a reason and they have a clear idea of what they want to see from Shaw before recalling him.

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“Consistency of his at bats, and it’s getting a chance to get down there and gain some confidence,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said this week. “We’re watching all his at-bats and talking about it, and we’ll continue to do that.

“My hope is that he makes it clear when he’s ready to come up, but we’ll keep on looking and analyzing, and I have no question that he’s gonna help this team again this year, for sure.”

Shaw hit just .172 with a .535 OPS in 68 plate appearances in the majors, striking out 26.5% of the time.

In the minors, he has a career .299/.385/.508 slash line (.893 OPS) in 173 games with 30 homers, 104 RBI and 48 stolen bases.

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The Cubs could use an offensive boost from the position — third basemen are hitting .195 with a .516 OPS this season — and with the recent defensive struggles, it’s fair to wonder if they would be better off handing the position back to Shaw and betting on his upside.

But Hoyer and Co. are taking a big-picture view on both this season and Shaw’s career and the 23-year-old’s development remains the top priority.

Hoyer was asked if there was a set number of at-bats the Cubs would like to see Shaw get in Triple-A before a return to the majors:

“There’s really not,” Hoyer said. “Some of that comes down to need, but there’s not a lot of science behind that. You can try to but ultimately, it comes down to, how is he putting up his numbers? What pitches is he swinging at? Who’s he doing his damage against? Those kind of things are probably gonna be a big part of it.”