{"id":97246,"date":"2025-07-27T17:24:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T17:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97246\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T17:24:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T17:24:16","slug":"prospect-sam-shaw-one-step-closer-to-becoming-next-canadian-born-blue-jay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/97246\/","title":{"rendered":"Prospect Sam Shaw one step closer to becoming next Canadian-born Blue Jay"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Somewhere in Victoria, British Columbia, there\u2019s a tiny plastic cup resting on a basement shelf. It\u2019s a mini red helmet, emblazoned with a fading Vancouver Canadians logo, that once held Sam Shaw\u2019s serving of ballpark ice cream.<\/p>\n

Shaw, 20, grew up attending Canadians games at Nat Bailey Stadium, the home of the Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 High-A affiliate. It\u2019s a short drive and two-hour ferry ride from his childhood home. His memories of The Nat are faded and patchwork \u2014 swinging in the kids\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

The Jays promoted Shaw to Vancouver after the All-Star break. It\u2019s 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\u2019s also a hard-earned trial run \u2014 a promotion earned by burgeoning power and a test of what it could be like for a rare Canadian player on the country\u2019s only MLB team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 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,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of what helps me in the weight room, or helps me with whatever. It\u2019s like, this is my chance to show that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, while scuffling in the Florida Complex League for a second-straight season, Shaw said that Vancouver \u2014 let alone the big leagues \u2014 felt particularly distant. The 5-foot-10 utilityman entered the season as Toronto\u2019s 20th-ranked prospect<\/a>, per The Athletic\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sucked,\u201d Shaw said. Perhaps a harsh diagnosis, but it\u2019s a blunt honesty that lives in Shaw\u2019s every word.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I had last year was I made a lot of contact,\u201d he said. \u201cI controlled the zone, I didn\u2019t swing and miss too much. But my damage, my power, was not very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the field, Shaw\u2019s 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\u2019s swing speed, comparable swing paths, barrel rates, exit velocities and contact quality. His favorite movie, naturally, is \u201cMoneyball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to sound like I\u2019m overthinking it,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cAnd maybe rightfully so. But there\u2019s a puzzle in the numbers that I do like to look at to try and figure out how to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSammy is pretty dynamic in the box,\u201d Blue Jays director of player development Joe Sclafani said. \u201cSo with that as a foundation, the recognizing pitches and the plate discipline being there, the next step was an ability to impact the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 all career-high marks in just half a season.<\/p>\n

Ahead of every home game, Shaw drove past the Dunedin library, turning into the TD Ballpark players\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Former Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ poses with a young Sam Shaw. (Courtesy of Sam Shaw)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Shaw sat in TD Ballpark\u2019s outfield seats one year, baking under Florida\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an added element to being a Canadian player in the Blue Jays\u2019 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 \u2014 how much they latch on to that rare Canadian \u2014 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny Canadian that plays in Canada, you\u2019re kind of the hometown guy, \u201d Shaw said. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

But more than any added bat speed or uptick in power, Shaw\u2019s success this season comes from an ability to silence that noise and calm the pressure. Before games, he\u2019s 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: \u201cHave Fun\u201d \u2014 a gentle reminder to leave the deep dives in the clubhouse.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s done a much better job of being where his feet are this year,\u201d Sclafani said. \u201cJust a focus, locking in on what he needs to do day to day. But he\u2019s going to need to continue to do that up there. Because, of course, how cool is that, the prodigal son comes home.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Mike Janes \/ Four Seam Images via Associated Press)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Somewhere in Victoria, British Columbia, there\u2019s a tiny plastic cup resting on a basement shelf. It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":97247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,62,1290,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-97246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114926365444675098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}