When the Toronto Blue Jays eliminated the New York Yankees from the American League (AL) Division Series, Yankee Stadium went silent. Blue Jays President and CEO Mark Shapiro ’89 summed up the moment in five words: “Best sound I’ve ever heard.”
Two weeks later, the Blue Jays defeated the Mariners in a winner-take-all Game 7 to move on to the World Series. After a decade in Toronto, Shapiro has led the franchise back to the Fall Classic for the first time since 1993, where the team now trails the Dodgers 1–2. His measured approach to leadership, shaped at Princeton and refined through 24 years with the then-Cleveland Indians and a decade with the Blue Jays, has made him one of baseball’s top executives.
“Being immersed in a setting of incredibly talented, competitive, diverse people with very high standards and expectations for themselves can impact a culture,” Shapiro said of his time at Princeton in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. At the University, he studied history and was a center on the varsity football team.
He asked himself: “What if you could recreate that in a professional environment?”
That question became the cornerstone of his career.
Shapiro wrote his senior thesis on housing segregation in Baltimore, Md. and aimed for the nonprofit world right out of Princeton. Instead, he started working with a developer in Southern California, which he shortly left to seek a “more fulfilling work environment.”
Shapiro got a break through his father, Ron Shapiro, a superagent who represented Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr., Brooks Robinson, Eddie Murray, and Kirby Puckett. Introducing him to figures in the industry, Shapiro took an untitled entry-level position in 1992 with the then-Cleveland Indians, which included “picking up guys at the airport and pulling off game reports.”
The franchise grew quickly, as did his responsibilities: from director of player development, to Vice President of Baseball Operations, to Assistant General Manager, to general manager, and finally president for over 24 years.
Now leading the Blue Jays, Mark is one of the few MLB executives overseeing both baseball and business operations.
“I enjoy that high level vision of what it takes to balance the two sides of the operation, both the business and the baseball side,” he said. “Where I focus my time is just where the leverage is … which, at different times a year, is in a different place.”
Through the development of the franchise, Shapiro said he focused on the people. His goal was to “ensure that [the] hiring process is rigorous, strong, and focused, and that our values are clear and evident, and we’re bringing in really talented people and empowering them to make us better.”
He embraced a process-driven approach that relied on well-selected management as well as players, implementing what he had observed at Princeton.
Since graduating from Princeton in 1989, Shapiro has maintained close ties to the University. Princeton baseball Head Coach Scott Bradley said that relationship began through Shapiro’s father, Ron.
“It goes way before Mark even got into baseball,” Bradley told the Prince. “Mark’s dad, Ron [Shapiro] was one of the biggest baseball agents before Scott Boras came into play and represented a number of my friends in baseball. I knew Ron for a long time, back into my playing days.”
When Bradley was hired as Princeton’s head coach in 1997, Mark quickly reached out.“He said, ‘Look, I love Princeton. I love my whole Princeton experience … any way I can ever possibly help you, you make sure,’” Bradley recalled.
Shapiro’s offer wasn’t an empty one. Bradley said Shapiro was instrumental in helping Princeton alumni pursue opportunities in major league front offices. When former Tiger captain Mike Hazen ’98 started his transition from playing to working in baseball, Bradley called Shapiro.
“The Indians had an internship at the time that they gave to Mike. He mentored Mike all the way to where he is now as a Major League General Manager,” Bradley said.
Mike Chernoff ’03, a former Princeton shortstop, also worked under Shapiro in Cleveland and now serves as general manager of the Guardians.
Beyond mentorship, Shapiro consistently provides access and guidance to the baseball program’s coaches, alumni, and players.
“He’s always been there for us in terms of professional development,” Bradley said. “Anytime I wanted to go to a game, anytime I wanted to go to spring training, anytime I wanted to pick the brain of their coaches, Mark made it happen.”
Bradley called Mark “unselfish” with his time and attention. Even when the Blue Jays faced Bradley’s former team, the Seattle Mariners, in the pennant, Bradley was quick to wear Toronto gear.
“Mark Shapiro has done so much for me, for my family, and for our baseball program in Princeton,” Bradley said. “I could never, ever possibly root against one of his teams.”
Shapiro’s move to Toronto, however, in 2015 came with backlash. Despite a track record of success, Canadian media was critical of an American running the only Canadian team in the league — a franchise that had enjoyed Canadian leadership since the early 80s.
“There was a lot of scrutiny from the media for my family coming in,” Shapiro’s son, Caden Shapiro ’25 said. “When you’re 14, 15, and you’re scrolling and you see that, you feel that,” he added.
Mark Shapiro would continue to face criticism. Despite four playoff appearances between 2016 and 2023, the only squad to win a postseason series under his leadership was the 2016 club — a roster he largely inherited.
Mark Shapiro weathered the criticism by leaning on his foundation. “Public criticism strikes that kind of status, power, fame — that’s not what I draw satisfaction from. My satisfaction comes from leading people to do great things and helping others to be better,” Mark Shapiro said.
Even through that stretch, Mark Shapiro kept pushing Toronto toward his long-term vision. In 2023, the organization finished as the runner-up in the pursuit of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, who ultimately signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mark Shapiro insisted that the pursuit of Ohtani was a sign of progress, not failure.
“The narrative that we … came in second on those guys to me is only a positive,” he said. “Ten years ago, there’s not a Japanese player that would have viewed Toronto as a great landing spot.”
He said the organization presented itself well and resonated with superstar talent, adding that “we have attracted a ton of players over the last four or five years.”
At the beginning of the 2025 season, the Blue Jays were yet again in a hard spot, coming off a season where they finished last in the Al east division. Entering spring training, the Blue Jays had the 20th best odds to win the World Series out of the 30 MLB franchises. There was pressure for change, but Mark Shapiro resisted.
“We didn’t make reflexive changes,” he said. “Instead, we took the group that was here, that had a strong foundation, and made adjustments.”
He pointed to one adjustment in particular: Bringing in David Popkins to be the hitting coach. He simplified the data and technology in a way which players could apply.
Moreover, Mark Shapiro orchestrated the largest deal in franchise history with star Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who signed a 14 year, $500 million extension in April. At a time when stars change teams frequently, he viewed Guerrero’s extension as a commitment to stability — the type of identity he has tried to build in each organization he has led.
“The most meaningful piece of that [extension] to me means that a generation or two generations of Blue Jay baseball fans will always have their best player be someone that they know is there and that just doesn’t exist in today’s world,” Mark Shapiro said.
He recalled his own childhood, when he grew up supporting Cal Ripken Jr. and even the later years of Brooks Robinson with the Baltimore Orioles, two members of the Baseball Hall of Fame who spent their entire careers in Baltimore.
“I know that there are kids coming to the games today at four or five years old who at 15, 16, will still be watching Vladdy [Guerrero Jr.] and their entire memory of the Blue Jays throughout their entire childhood, will be that Vlad was the best player and was the franchise player.”
At the end of the 2025 regular season, the Blue Jays became just the 14th team in the divisional era, which started in 1969, to go from worst in the division to best the following season.
Most recently, Mark Shapiro has returned to Princeton not as an alumnus, but as a father. Growing up with access to spring-training dugouts and ball-boy duties for a Major League team led his son, Caden Shapiro ’25, to a spot on the Tigers’ baseball roster.
Caden Shapiro recalled “moments like shagging the outfield as a young kid and talking with legends like Corey Kluber, Carlos Santana, Victor Martinez, and watching Michael Brantley work 7–8 hours before a game in the cage and just sitting there and going, ‘wow, this is pretty special.’”
A second-team All-Ivy selection in 2023, Caden Shapiro finished his Princeton career with 145 hits, 72 runs batted in, and 14 home runs. In August, he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a minor league free agent and now trains at the team’s academy in the Dominican Republic.
“I have such immense respect for what it means to be a student-athlete there — even more through my son’s experience than my own,” Mark Shapiro said. “My respect and appreciation is deep and profound.”
Caden Shapiro sees this current opportunity as a pathway to coaching, where he eventually hopes to pursue a career. Three generations of Shapiros will have served the sport of baseball. “My grandfather did it on behalf of players against the teams,” Caden Shapiro said. “My dad did it for the teams in the front office. I want to do it for the players on the field.”
Mark Shapiro’s contract is set to expire soon, though reports suggest an extension is expected following the World Series.
“I don’t ever spend too much time thinking about the future,” he said. “If I do a good job wherever I am, the rest will take care of itself.”
As the Blue Jays chase their first World Series title in over three decades, Mark Shapiro insists the win will not define him. Instead, he is excited about building something that lasts.
“We would have given tens of millions of Canadian baseball fans lifelong memories and bonds with each other and bonds around the game,” he said. “That is the reason I got into the game of baseball.”
The silence of Yankee Stadium may remain his favorite sound, but the echoes of a World Series Championship might be a sweeter, lasting hum.
Hayk Yengibaryan is a head News editor, senior Sports writer, and education director for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Glendale, Calif. and typically covers breaking news and profiles. He can be reached at hy5161[at]princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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