Betts: Shapiro forging own path through Princeton, Cape Cod

Toronto Mets alum Caden Shapiro is getting ready for his junior season with the Princeton Tigers. Photo: Princeton Athletics

September 4, 2023

By Matt Betts

Canadian Baseball Network

At just 21 years old, Caden Shapiro has already been around some of the greats that have played the game at the highest level.

It comes with the territory of having a father who’s a baseball lifer.

If the name sounds familiar, it should, as father Mark Shapiro is the president and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays and has been involved in the game for over three decades, dating back to 1991 when he joined Cleveland’s front office.

“I’ve been around a lot of high level players,” the younger Shapiro said from his home in Toronto days before heading back to Princeton University for his junior season with the Tigers.

“I remember watching Michael Brantley hit off a tee into hoola hoops in the top corners of the cage and hitting them every time.”

Shapiro was born in Cleveland but moved to Toronto when his dad took over the Blue Jays and later suited up for Ryan McBride’s Toronto Mets.

Caden Shapiro honed his skills with the Toronto Mets before heading to Princeton. Photo: Toronto Mets

Looking to continue his own baseball career, he wasn’t quite sure what to expect when he stepped foot on the field north of the border but it didn’t take him long to form a new appreciation for Canadians playing the game.

“I think people sleep on the talent that’s up here, there’s legit teams” Shapiro said.

“That was a shock to me when I got here, how elite the competition level was. It’s prepared me for the last few years of college.”

Not only was the competition better than he anticipated, the way players in Canada went about their business also impressed him. Spending offseasons in the great white north isn’t exactly an ideal way to try and keep up with players in the Sunshine State, or anyone else afforded the opportunity to be on a baseball field 12 months of the year.

“We’re disadvantaged here, kids down south are always outside,” he said

“We’re up here grinding in cages and fighting for every at bat we can get.”

But with adversity comes growth and Shapiro was determined to add his name to the ever-expanding list of Mets college commitments.

Throughout the recruiting process, Princeton remained an option for the smooth swinging left-handed hitter as it’s a school the Shapiro family knows well, given Mark played centre and offensive tackle for the Tigers football team in the 80s.

But that also formed part of the dilemma. With a father so well-known around baseball circles and casting a large shadow, leaving his own mark on the game was important.

“I wanted to follow my own path,” Shapiro said.

“I was looking at other schools. My mind wasn’t set on Princeton until late in the recruiting process.”

In the end, an Ivy League education and a strong baseball program led by former big leaguer Scott Bradley was enough to get him to sign on the dotted line and never look back.

It’s turning out to be a great decision.

In two seasons so far, Shapiro is hitting .271. He’s also been summoned from the bullpen seven times to the tune of a 1.29 ERA, although he admits his pitching days are dwindling as he focuses on causing pitchers grief as opposed to being one.

Caden Shapiro has hit .271 in two seasons with the Princeton Tigers. Photo: Princeton Athletics

He continued his strong play this summer with the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks of the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

After hitting .305 and swiping five bases in 29 games for the team based out of Oak Bluff, Mass., Shapiro wasn’t ready to go home after they missed the playoffs.

He’d seen the best growing up, now he wanted to play amongst the best at the level he was at.

Sometimes you have to be your own biggest advocate, something he likely learned from a father who’s no stranger to negotiations. So he went to his general manager and asked if there was a place to play in the Cape Cod League. He eventually landed with the Falmouth Commodores where he played in three games and hit .222.

Much like the cages at Progressive Field, or those snowy winters plying his trade inside the Mets facility on East Beaver Creek Road in Richmond Hill, his short stint in the Cape taught him about what it takes to excel at the next level.

“I think the adjustment is that guys love to pitch backwards,” he said of his time with Falmouth.

“I think I saw two fastballs in my first five or six plate appearances. You can’t let an 0-for-4 or 4–for-4 game impact you or dictate your next day. If you have routines, stick to that, trust your process and ride it out.”

As Shapiro continues to build his own career in the game, the experiences of his childhood aren’t lost on him. What he appreciates the most, however, isn’t what his dad provided but the way in which he’s supported him along the way.

“I’m always grateful that he kind of pushed me as much as I wanted to be pushed,” he said.

“There were times early I wasn’t as interested in baseball and he said that was fine. Now, I just turned 21 and I’d rather be on a field than anywhere else. That’s a huge credit to my dad who let me love the game in my own way.”

So what does a future in the game potentially look like as that love grows and his skillset expands?

“I’d like to play for as long as I can,” he said.

“I want to live the dream a little bit. After that, my dad has always been a front office guy for most of his career, I’d like to be in uniform and on the player development side. It’s going to be on my own terms and I’m going to look for opportunities in different places than you may think.”