Wellesley’s Mike Vasil makes extra exciting Major League Baseball debut for White Sox
It’s rare that a kid from Wellesley makes it all the way from youth baseball in town to the major leagues, but Mike Vasil accomplished that on Monday by making his debut for the Chicago White Sox, who shut out Minnesota 9-0.
The 25-year-old right-handed pitcher couldn’t have asked for a more exciting opportunity to pitch for the first time in the majors. Starter Martín Pérez (a one-time Red Sox player) held the Minnesota Twins scoreless—and hitless—through six innings, but was pulled after throwing 93 pitches. The White Sox were already up 9-0.
Enter Vasil, for the first time, with the pressure to keep the no-hitter going in the seventh. Chicago’s #61 put away the first two batters, but then left handed hitter Willi Castro banged a sharp single to right for the Twins’ first of just two hits on the day. Vasil got the next better out to end the inning without giving up a run.
Vasil came back out to pitch the eighth. One batter reached on an error and another got a hit, but Vasil got his first career strikeout against Ty France on six pitches, the last resulting in a swing and miss. That ball was a keeper for the rookie, who sports a 0.00 earned run average.
Reflecting on the sub-40 temperature during the game, Vasil told a reporter for MLB: “Once the sun came out, it was fine,” said Vasil. “I’m used to pitching in cold weather as well, being from the Northeast. Regardless of that, in your Major League debut, I wasn’t feeling a thing. “
Vasil’s family members hunkered down in Chicago over the weekend after the 25-year-old right-handed pitcher cracked the opening day line-up for the White Sox. His path to this point over the past few months has been improbable, but almost perfect in the end in that the White Sox are a rebuilding team on which young players will get a chance to show what they have.
Vasil was drafted by the New York Mets in 2021, and had his moments in the minors for Mets farm teams. He was picked up by the Philadelphia Phillies late last year in the Rule 5 Draft, then flipped to the Tampa Rays for cash. Vasil pitched for the Rays in spring training this year, but was waived by the team and then claimed by the White Sox.
Back before he was playing baseball professionally, Vasil pitched for BC High and then at the University of Virginia. But he didn’t forget his roots. Back in 2017, for example, he took part in a Terriers Sports baseball event pitching to eight-to-twelve year olds who now have a pretty cool story to tell: They batted against a future Major League Baseball player.
The last Wellesley player to make the big leagues, to our knowledge, was Nate Freiman, in 2013. He played two seasons for the Oakland A’s.
