Chris Shaw's 2019 season gave the Giants outfield prospect a little bit of everything.
A September call-up was the tail end of his successful season as a member of the River Cats, who were crowned Triple-A National champions. While he sported the orange and black, he got to return home to his native Boston and create memories that were the main conversation among his family during the holidays.
But it's next season he's looking forward to the most.
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When he had heard the Giants' new manager would be Gabe Kapler, he was excited. He grew up watching Kapler, who was a member of the 2004 World Series champion Red Sox -- a season that sticks out to Shaw.
"I heard nothing but great things from any guys that have played for him and I grew up watching him to a certain extent," Shaw said in a recent interview with KNBR. "He actually came to Boston last week and had lunch with [Mike Yastrzemski] and myself -- it was really cool to sit down and get to know him on a personal level and I couldn't be more excited for the direction of the organization's heading under him."
In addition to Kapler, the Giants' coaching staff has a bunch new faces -- another factor Shaw looks forward to being a part of.
"It's obviously great to have new people come in with new perspective and guys that have track records," Shaw added.
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The 26-year-old then complimented former Reds coach Donnie Ecker, who was hired earlier in December as the Giants' new hitting coach.
"As soon as he was hired, he reached out within the first couple of days and he even told me the next time I'm flying out to Los Angeles, he's going to fly down with me and we'll go work together with our hitting guy, so it's really encouraging just to see how hands-on the staff is and how invested they seem."
"It's got a lot of guys excited in the organization," said Shaw.
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Last season, Shaw started in Double-A and found himself with the big-league club not too far after that. In those 20 plate appearances at the big league level, he got just one hit, a couple of walks and eight strikeouts. He knows next season he will be presented with more ways to prove himself.
"Going into camp this year, it's just nice to know that you will have some sort of opportunity and I feel like I've played long enough at this point where I kind of know how to manage expectations and control my emotions when I go out there," he said. "I'm putting in the work now so that when it comes time when the lights come on, it's just second nature and everything you put in up to that point kind of just flows on its own."