The Futures League

© 2021 S.F. Giants

WEYMOUTH, Mass. (April 29, 2021) -- Northeastern University product Jason Vosler became the sixth former Futures Collegiate Baseball League (FCBL) player to make his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut when he stepped into the batter’s box for the San Francisco Giants last Saturday night.

The West Nyack, N.Y., native received a pinch-hit at-bat in his Saturday debut against the Miami Marlins before recording his first career hit and then stealing a base in the fifth inning of the following day’s game.

Vosler earned FCBL All-Star honors at shortstop while playing for the Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide back in 2012, the second year of the league’s existence. He posted a team-leading .343 average, 12 doubles, three home runs and 23 RBI for the FCBL’s former Maine-based club that summer.

After being named to the All-Colonial Athletic Association First Team and All-New England Second Team to wrap up his collegiate career at Northeastern back in 2014, Vosler was a 16th-round draft choice of the Chicago Cubs.

Vosler played in 630 career minor league games before signing a MLB contract with the Giants last November and hit .304 with four doubles and one triple across 20 Spring Training games in 2021. He spent the final two months of 2020 at San Diego’s Alternate Training Site and was ranked among the Cubs’ top 30 prospects on MLBPipeline.com before being traded to the Padres organization.

Vosler joined Miami Marlins pitcher Paul Campbell (Clemson University) and Detroit Tigers infielder Zack Short (Sacred Heart University) as FCBL alumni to advance all the way to “The Show” during the first month of the 2021 season. His second plate appearance as a Giant actually came against a former Martha’s Vineyard Shark in Campbell, marking the first-ever MLB at-bat between FCBL alumni.

Short became the FCBL’s first-ever major leaguer from the Brockton Rox on April 21, just three days before Vosler’s first at-bat for San Francisco. Vosler, who was a two-time MiLB.com Organizational All-Star with the Cubs in 2017 and 2018, called Short his teammate while playing for the Double-A Southern League’s Tennessee Smokies.

Former Torrington Titans pitcher Tyler Bashlor (South Georgia College) and Nashua Silver Knights slugger Chris Shaw (Boston College) were the first FCBL products to make their MLB debuts in 2018, while Vosler’s former Northeastern teammate Aaron Civale followed the next season. Civale, who won the FCBL championship with the Worcester Bravehearts in 2014, has remained in Cleveland’s starting rotation ever since his Indians debut.

Civale and then-Pittsburgh Pirate Bashlor pitched on opposite sides of the same game on Aug. 19, 2020. Civale threw a complete game and Bashlor pitched out of the bullpen during Cleveland’s win at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park, but the two FCBL alums never directly faced off since MLB played with a universal designated hitter last season.

The Futures League will begin its 2021 season on Wednesday, May 26. For the latest news and information on the Futures League all year long, visit thefuturesleague.com and follow the league’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.