ROCKLAND, Mass. (September 26, 2025) 一 The Futures League is proud to begin unveiling its Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
The third-ever class will be celebrated as part of the first league-wide Futures League Hot Stove, which is set for Saturday, November 8 at Rivier University in Nashua, N.H. More details on the event and links to register to attend can be found by clicking here.
Headlining the class is current New York Yankees catcher/first baseman Ben Rice, who capped off a two-year career with the Worcester Bravehearts as the 2020 Futures League Most Valuable Player. Rice hit .369 with 16 home runs – which are tied for the fifth-most in league history – and 51 RBI across 73 career games en route to consecutive first-team All-Futures League nods in 2019 and 2020. His 13 RBI in postseason contests rank second all-time. Rice initially joined Worcester amid a 2019 championship run the summer after his freshman year at Dartmouth, posting a team-best .392 average in 27 games before hitting a clutch three-run homer in the deciding title game against the Bristol Blues. The Cohasset, Mass., native was the standout among standouts during the league’s talent-rich COVID summer of 2020, hitting .398 with a league-leading 11 homers, 84 total bases and .683 slugging percentage. He led the regular-season champion Bravehearts with 27 RBI and 43 total hits. With his career at Dartmouth College cut to only 30 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rice’s performance in the Futures League proved to be a launching pad in his career and led to the Yankees drafting him in the 12th round in 2021.
Following two decades as a Division 1 head coach at Georgetown University, the late Pete Wilk joined the Vermont Lake Monsters as their inaugural Futures League field manager in 2021 and made a lasting impact on both the Burlington community and the league as a whole. On the field, Wilk led Vermont to single-season league record win totals in the first two of his three seasons at the helm, winning 42 games in 2021 and 44 in 2022. The team’s 2021 league debut culminated in a postseason championship, as Wilk went on to become the first two-time Manager of the Year in league history the following year. Wilk was diagnosed with Glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer, in February of 2023 and inspired the baseball world by returning to Burlington for the final few weeks of that summer season, alongside his wife (Erin) and daughters (Reese and Casey). He lost his 15-month battle in April of 2024. In his memory, the Futures League now gives out the Pete Wilk Award annually to a persevering individual who has overcome injury, illness or personal tragedy to make an impact for their team on or off the field, as that is exactly what Wilk did throughout his life.
Few names appear in the Futures League record books as many times as Ryan Sullivan, who played in a league-record 185 regular-season and 17 postseason games over five seasons (2013-17) as a Nashua Silver Knight. The Southern New Hampshire University product is also the league’s all-time leader in regular-season career at-bats (682), RBI (145), hits (199), total bases (351) and doubles (41). He ranks second in home runs (37) and extra-base hits (78) and third in runs scored (109), all helping him slug at an incredible .515 clip and post an .874 OPS. A four-time Futures League All-Star, Sullivan was an offensive backbone on consecutive championship teams in 2016 and 2017, capping the first of those title runs with Postseason Most Valuable Player honors after hitting .444 with two homers, eight RBI and five runs scored in six games. His 12 playoff hits in 2016 are the most in Futures League history and included a game-tying homer to force extra innings in the first championship game against Worcester. In his postseason career, he was a .342 hitter and still holds record totals with his 20 RBI, 25 total hits and 42 total bases.
EVENT DETAILS
The Futures League Hot Stove will run from 5-9 p.m. on November 8.
Prior to the Hall of Fame portion of the program, there will be a moderated panel discussion on college recruiting featuring top New England baseball and softball coaches beginning at 5 p.m. in Sylvia Trottier Hall.
The Hall of Fame induction and panel is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Dion Center, where a cocktail reception will be held from 5-8 p.m.
Registration for both events is now available by clicking here. The cost is $45 for the recruiting panel, $105 for the Hall of Fame induction, and $125 for both events. The price of the Hall of Fame event includes a buffet menu.
For the latest Futures League news and information throughout the year, visit thefuturesleague.com and follow the league’s Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram pages.