Travis Richard Shaw (born April 16, 1990) is an American former professional baseball infielder who played eight seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for three MLB teams—the Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers and Toronto Blue Jays—and was nicknamed the Mayor of Ding Dong City. During his professional career, he was listed at and ; he batted left-handed and threw right-handed. His father, Jeff, is a former two-time All-Star pitcher who played for six major-league teams.
Amateur career
Shaw was born and raised in the city of Washington Court House, Ohio. Shaw attended Washington High School, the alma mater of his father, Jeff, a former MLB closer who was a two-time All-Star who played for six major league teams during an 11-year career. Travis Shaw played college baseball at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. He batted a .307 average with a Mid-American Conference-leading 14 home runs while playing 62 games for the Golden Flashes in 2011. He also slugged .553 and collected 51 runs batted in, being named to the first team All-MAC in 2011 and the second team in 2010. In 2009, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Cincinnati Steam of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League.In 2010, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Baseball League.
Professional career
Boston Red Sox
Minor leagues
The Red Sox selected Shaw in the ninth round of the 2011 MLB draft and he made his professional debut that year with the Short-Season A Lowell Spinners, leading them in RBI (36) and ending second in doubles (14), home runs (8) and runs scored (34). On July 2 of that season, he set a team record for the most total bases (12) in a single game, after going 4-for-4 with a home run, three doubles and two walks, driving in five runs while scoring three times. He finished the year at Low Class A Greenville Drive, batting .333 in two games before gaining a promotion to the High Class A Salem Red Sox in 2012.
Shaw had a breakout season at Salem, hitting .305 with a .411 on-base percentage in 99 games, while leading the team in home runs (16), RBI (73) and runs (69), being named to the Carolina League mid-season All-Star team. He was promoted to the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs early in August, but was strongly tested in the upper Eastern League, where he finished with a .227 average, three home runs and 12 RBI in 31 games. Even so, he was among the five best Red Sox minor leaguers in 2012, ranking second both in RBI (85) and OPS (.918), fourth in slugging (.519), while tying for second in on-base percentage (.399) and for fourth in home runs (19).
In 2013 Shaw scuffled while adjusting to Double-A, hitting a paltry .221 in 127 games with Portland. Nevertheless, he finished with 16 home runs, 50 RBI and a very solid .452 OBP. Then, during the offseason he had a chance to play against some of the best prospects in baseball in the Arizona Fall League, where he hit a .361/.452/.705 line with five home runs and 19 RBI in 17 games for the Surprise Saguaros team.
Shaw steadily progressed in 2014, while splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A. He hit .305/.406/.548 with 11 home runs and 37 RBI in 208 plate appearances for Portland before gaining a promotion to the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox. He finished strong at Pawtucket, hitting .262/.321/.431 with 10 home runs and 41 RBI in 81 games.
Overall in 2014, Shaw topped the Sox minor league system with 21 home runs and collected 78 RBI, being surpassed only by Carlos Asuaje (101). He also scored a second-best 78 runs behind Mookie Betts (87) and was second in extra base hits (52) to Asuaje (65), while improving his approach from 2013. As a result, Shaw walked more than he struck out in Portland (29-to-23) and posted acceptable strikeout (76) and walk (28) rates at Pawtucket. Shaw ranked 19th in the MLB.com Top 20 Boston Red Sox Prospects list for 2014.
Shaw was added to the 40-man roster in November 2014. He was promoted to the major league club on May 8, 2015, making his major league debut on the same day against the Toronto Blue Jays. He was optioned to Pawtucket the next day.