Matt Shaw is back.

The 23-year-old third baseman’s return to the major leagues comes 25 days after he was demoted to Triple-A Iowa because of a super-slow offensive start.

He hit .172 with a .535 OPS in 18 games with the Chicago Cubs before being sent down. He was recalled Monday while on an offensive tear. Some mechanical adjustments that Shaw made in Iowa gave the team confidence that this time will be different.

Shaw also believes it will be. While being demoted was unwelcome, it was restorative from technical and mental perspectives.

“Taking a step back and kind of being able to take a breath and stuff was really nice,” Shaw told reporters before Monday’s game against the Miami Marlins. “You know, the first month of the season was pretty overwhelming, with Japan and everything going on.

“It’s definitely nice to take a breath back in Triple-A and get a couple things moving in the right direction.”

Shaw believes he’s in a better place, without carrying the weight of sky-high expectations. The Cubs have seen his improvement, especially in terms of driving the ball and producing extra-base hits. Third base production has been an issue all season, and the Cubs believe Shaw has a chance to fix it.

“Matt was playing well and, frankly, we’ve been struggling at third base a little bit, and so it’s just the combination of the two things,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “You think you could give Matt another shot. I mean, he was down roughly a month and put 75 or so plate appearances under his belt and did a nice job with that.”

He certainly did. Shaw hit .286 with a .970 OPS, six home runs and 14 RBI in 24 games with Iowa while providing steady, occasionally spectacular defense at third.

“That’s just getting back to being myself at the plate,” Shaw said. “So, you know, it was one of those things where I just think I really just needed a couple days, and then went back down there and got back on track pretty quickly.”

Shaw said he felt dialed in a week and a half ago, when he started consistently hitting the ball harder. The adjustments worked, and Shaw believes they’ll lead to more consistency at the plate.

There’s also an understanding that his job won’t all be sunshine and rainbows. There will be down periods, but he’ll need an ability to work out of them as he did over the last month.

“The growth is going to continue to happen,” Counsell said. “There’s going to be failure that you’re going to have to respond to. That’s going to continue to happen. So, this is just a step in that journey, and you just kind of get a little bit better each time. And as you go through this and you learn that you have to make those changes and you have to make adjustments. I think, as much as anything, that’s kind of what a what this is about.”

The Cubs put Shaw right into the starting lineup, batting ninth in a super-productive order that doesn’t need him to be dominant to score tons of runs. That takes some pressure off, but he’ll need to perform better to maintain his place on a team with high standards.

Shaw won’t have to look over his shoulder every time he makes an out, but he must prove that he can work out of trouble in the big leagues. He lost himself a bit in his early season slump, and he reclaimed it in the minors. Now the Cubs want to see him do that in the spotlight.

“They have to learn how to get out of it without changing everything,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. “I think that’s really important. So, making sure they don’t lose their confidence, they don’t stop being themselves (is key). As long as they’re doing that, I think they can stay here and make those adjustments.”