Prospect Sam Shaw one step closer to becoming next Canadian-born Blue Jay
Shaw, 20, grew up attending Canadians games at Nat Bailey Stadium, the home of the Toronto Blue Jays' High-A affiliate. It's a short drive and two-hour ferry ride from his childhood home. His memories of The Nat are faded and patchwork — swinging in the kids' batting cage down the left-field line, watching rising prospects and scooping soft serve out of a mini helmet. But as Shaw slipped on a much bigger, much more real Canadians batting helmet for the first time last week, the memories flooded back.
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The Jays promoted Shaw to Vancouver after the All-Star break. It's a homecoming of sorts for the lifelong West Coast fan of the Blue Jays, who selected him in the ninth round of the 2023 draft. It's also a hard-earned trial run — a promotion earned by burgeoning power and a test of what it could be like for a rare Canadian player on the country's only MLB team.
'There's going to be a kid like me that gets to watch me play for the first time, that dreams of being a hometown kid in Vancouver or on the Blue Jays,' Shaw said. 'That's kind of what helps me in the weight room, or helps me with whatever. It's like, this is my chance to show that.'
Last year, while scuffling in the Florida Complex League for a second-straight season, Shaw said that Vancouver — let alone the big leagues — felt particularly distant. The 5-foot-10 utilityman entered the season as Toronto's 20th-ranked prospect, per The Athletic's Keith Law. He walked at a 16.7 percent clip last year, second best on his FCL team, but a lack of power limited his ceiling.
'I sucked,' Shaw said. Perhaps a harsh diagnosis, but it's a blunt honesty that lives in Shaw's every word.
'What I had last year was I made a lot of contact,' he said. 'I controlled the zone, I didn't swing and miss too much. But my damage, my power, was not very good.'
On the field, Shaw's jersey is often drenched with the dirt of a stolen base or diving defensive play. But while discussing his search for power, the second baseman and outfielder sounds more like a data analyst or baseball blogger than a gritty ballplayer. For him, it's swing speed, comparable swing paths, barrel rates, exit velocities and contact quality. His favorite movie, naturally, is 'Moneyball.'
'It's going to sound like I'm overthinking it,' Shaw said. 'And maybe rightfully so. But there's a puzzle in the numbers that I do like to look at to try and figure out how to be better.'
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That mindset made Shaw the perfect candidate to attend Driveline Baseball for an offseason boot camp. He spent a week at the data-driven player development lab in Washington state. They broke down his swing in a batting cage filled with flashing cameras and computer monitors, looking for imperfections and concocting a plan to improve his bat speed and power potential. Shaw ate more, hit the gym more and swung with a weighted bat.
'Sammy is pretty dynamic in the box,' Blue Jays director of player development Joe Sclafani said. 'So with that as a foundation, the recognizing pitches and the plate discipline being there, the next step was an ability to impact the ball.'
Shaw entered spring training with harder swings and increased exit velocities, earning a spot with Low-A Dunedin to start the season. In 62 games, he hit seven homers and 10 doubles, posting an .801 OPS — all career-high marks in just half a season.
Ahead of every home game, Shaw drove past the Dunedin library, turning into the TD Ballpark players' lot. Each day, pausing for the security fence to open, Shaw looked out at the barren patch of concrete he stood on as a kid.
Waiting at that same gate on spring training trips with his family, Shaw hoped that exiting Blue Jays players would stop to sign an autograph after a spring game. Darwin Barney, Shaw recalls with a chuckle, snubbed him for an autograph. But he had better luck with Jason Grilli, J.A. Happ, Troy Tulowitzki and Russell Martin.
Shaw sat in TD Ballpark's outfield seats one year, baking under Florida's spring sun. Young Blue Jays right fielder Jonathan Davis drifted back for a ball, snagging it with his glove before turning to the stands. As Davis launched the ball into the crowd, Shaw reached up and caught the souvenir. Now, as Shaw joins High-A Vancouver, Davis is the hitting coach.
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There's an added element to being a Canadian player in the Blue Jays' organization. Shaw cheered on Martin as the hometown catcher for the ALCS runs in 2015 and 2016. He watched Jordan Romano lock down saves the last few years. He knows what fans expect — how much they latch on to that rare Canadian — because he was that fan. Shaw remains several years and many promotions away from Rogers Centre, but this bump to Vancouver, Shaw said, is a hopeful trial run.
'Any Canadian that plays in Canada, you're kind of the hometown guy, ' Shaw said. 'It's gonna be different.'
But more than any added bat speed or uptick in power, Shaw's success this season comes from an ability to silence that noise and calm the pressure. Before games, he's a self-proclaimed nerd, poring over swing data and game plans. At first pitch, Shaw looks to his wrist, at the red beaded bracelet his mother, Stephanie, gave him before the season. On it reads a simple message: 'Have Fun' — a gentle reminder to leave the deep dives in the clubhouse.
It's helped ease the weight of his dream, Shaw said, simplifying the eight months and 132-game schedule of a minor-league season back to the game he grew up playing in Victoria. In the batter's box, his mind is clear. Playing in front of friends, family and hungry Canadian baseball fans at Nat Bailey Stadium, Shaw knows that mindset will be all the more important.
If, one day, Shaw becomes the next Canadian to suit up for the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre, he hopes this Vancouver test will have prepared him.
'He's done a much better job of being where his feet are this year,' Sclafani said. 'Just a focus, locking in on what he needs to do day to day. But he's going to need to continue to do that up there. Because, of course, how cool is that, the prodigal son comes home.'
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