Caleb Shpur, a former Housatonic Valley Regional High School standout from East Canaan, has signed with the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball.
Shpur, an outfielder who played at Endicott College before finishing his college career at the University of Connecticut, said the opportunity came unexpectedly earlier this month.
“Out of nowhere, honestly,” Shpur, 24, said. “I was up in New Hampshire and my advisor called me and said the Tigers still had interest. The next day, they said they wanted to get me down for a physical.”
Within days, Shpur was in Florida at the Tigers’ training complex in Lakeland. After completing his physical, he was assigned to the Lakeland Flying Tigers, the organization’s Single-A affiliate.
His signing didn’t surprise his former coach.
“You could tell right away he had a feel for baseball,” said longtime Housatonic coach Darryl Morhardt, who coached Shpur for four years. “He wasn’t big as a freshman, but he just understood the game.”
Shpur didn’t start on varsity as a freshman, but by his sophomore year, he had earned a key role on a strong Housatonic varsity team that made a run in the state tournament.
“Caleb was ready,” Morhardt said. “He was hitting cleanup for us as a sophomore on a team that went to the semifinals.”
That season proved pivotal.
“My sophomore year, we made the semifinals for states, and that really pushed me to want to play in college,” Shpur said. “It lit a fire under me. I wanted to get back to that feeling of high-pressure baseball.”
By his senior year, Shpur had developed into a strong player. He hit over .400, stole 34 bases and committed just two errors all season, according to his coach.
“He just got better every year,” Morhardt said. “Every part of his game improved — hitting, defense, baserunning.”
After graduating, Shpur attended Endicott College in Massachusetts, where he emerged as one of the top players at the Division III level before transferring to the University of Connecticut.
At UConn, he elevated his game against Division I competition, hitting .358 with a .426 on-base percentage in his final year in 2025.
Despite that performance, Shpur went undrafted. As the months passed after college ended, he wasn’t sure another opportunity would come.
“I talked to the Tigers a lot during the draft process, but nothing really worked out,” he said.
Still, he stayed ready. He was working at a baseball training facility in New Hampshire, which made it easier for him to stay in shape. Now in Lakeland, Shpur is beginning to adjust to professional baseball.
“I’ve only played a couple games so far. Got my first hit, which was nice,” he said. “There’s a long way to go — still adjusting to high-level pitching.”
Shpur credits his time at Housatonic for shaping both his development and his love of the game.
“Having Coach Morhardt and that whole experience was awesome and really continued my love of baseball,” he said.
Now, he said his focus is simple.
“Just keep grinding,” Shpur said. “Take it day by day and hopefully do enough for them to see the potential and keep moving up.”
His family played a key role along the way.
“We put a lot of miles on the car, but it was worth it,” said his mother, Alicia Simonetti-Shpur, a teacher at Cornwall Consolidated School, where Caleb attended.
She recalled his early dedication to the sport, often playing on multiple teams at once — including Cornwall Consolidated, North Canaan Little League and a club team in Thomaston — and spending hours practicing at home.
“He would constantly throw the wiffle ball against the house with his brother; he would do it again and again,” she said.
