etiquette help please

hoping you ladies can help. my fi has an employee who started at his company/department about a month ago. this employee is having a baby shower next month and invited my fi & i. we aren't going to be able to go b/c we have plans. and, quite frankly, even if we didn't we wouldn't go b/c we know this guy from a hole in the wall.

what's the etiquette as far as gift? is it like a wedding where we need to send something even if we're not going? seems kind of ridiculous to me considering fi barely knows this guy (of course, if it's the polite thing to do we'll suck it up and send something).

thanks!