All-round sports star Sam Shaw had a decision to make. He traded blades for spikes and is headed for home plate having never looked back at a sheet of ice.
It has led to the Victoria Eagles star being announced this week among the top 300 prospects for the 2023 Major League Baseball draft invited to the third-annual MLB Combine from June 20-25 at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.
Several of the Island hockey players that the former Victoria Admirals star Shaw played rep with and against have been on Central Scouting’s rankings list for the 2023 NHL draft, including Matthew Wood, Owen Beckner, Ty Halabruda and Dylan Compton. Shaw is friends with all of them but chose a different base path.
“I’ve known all those guys since I was five years old,” said Shaw.
“It was a difficult decision to leave hockey. But the decision to choose baseball came naturally to me.”
In their teens, top multi-sport athletes begin to realize almost instinctively what will be the best choice. Shaw has clearly made the right one. While his hockey buddies will be heading to the NHL Combine, Shaw will be at Chase Field, home of the Diamondbacks, next month to strut his stuff in front of MLB scouts and GMs.
While combines, where the top draft prospects gather in one place for evaluation, have been a staple in the NHL and NFL, this is only the third year for the MLB combine. According to MLB.com, 32 of the top-50 picks in the 2022 MLB draft attended last year’s combine in San Diego.
“This is a great opportunity to go to Chase Field to show the MLB experts what I have to offer,” said Shaw.
It’s a lot. Shaw is a sort of Swiss Army Knife of the diamond, from the infield to outfield to the plate.
“I like being the utility guy and to use all my skills like Mookie Betts,” he said.
“Versatility is the way the game is going.”
Shaw’s five-foot-10, 180-pound frame belies a deceptively-powerful swing. Shaw placed second to Team Canada teammate Myles Naylor of Mississauga, Ont., — also invited to the MLB combine — in the final of the 2022 U-18 World Cup home-run derby. Smith also hit .428 at the 2022 Wood Bat Association world championship last fall.
“You don’t need a big body to drive the ball because it’s mechanical — it’s how you hit it,” said Shaw.
Shaw grew up in Fairfield but attends Lambrick Park Secondary because of the baseball academy there. He is in Grade 12 and committed to Xavier University of NCAA Div. 1. Shaw plays for the Eagles of the B.C. Premier Baseball League and is currently in Orlando, Florida, playing at the TNXL Academy for two months of development. He will return next month to finish off the BCPBL season with the Eagles.
“I am enjoying the academy experience down here,” said Shaw. “But I am looking forward to getting back home in time for graduation at Lambrick Park and getting in games with the Eagles.”
Jeremy Pike of BVM Sports ranks Shaw as the No. 3 Canadian high-school-age player for 2023, behind top-ranked Naylor and No. 2 Eliot Cadieux-Lanoue, a Canada U-18 pitcher with the Langley Blaze of the BCPBL.
Shaw said sport is about mind as well as body and he has several books about meditation on his summer reading list: “It’s about self-improvement.”
All that will come into play next month at Chase Field.
“The main event [of the combine] will be pro-style workouts on June 20-21 that will be broadcast live on MLB Network,” said MLB.com.
“Coverage will include batting practice for position players and bullpen sessions for pitchers, as well as athletic testing and interviews with participants and club officials. Beyond the on-field workouts, prospects will have the opportunity to meet with general managers, scouting directors and other executives from teams.”
The MLB draft is July 9-11 in Seattle in conjunction with the 2023 all-star game festivities.
