Journalistic independence is very important, but any embedded beat reporter wants to be able to respond to what the people they cover are telling them, especially if it's something everyone is saying.
"You should talk to that guy," pitching coach Ethan Katz said as ebullient rookie Mike Vasil bounded up the dugout stairs and onto the field. "He's a character."
"As we like to say in baseball, he's one of one," said Cam Booser.
As the White Sox opened their three-game set in Cincinnati last week, where the Rule 5 pick would wind up collecting his first career save to spoil Pete Rose Night in front of a sellout crowd, the question was who is the one responsible for the quite loud and very steady run of disco music in the visiting clubhouse. The volley of bouncy dance tunes included at least three playings of The Bee Gees' 1977 hit "More Than a Woman" in the 45-minute span that the Sox locker room is open to media.
"It's just a good song, honestly," Vasil said. "When I was younger, my dad used to play [disco] all the time for me. And when he cleans the dishes right now, he'll play it on his Alexa."
Vasil would put some of the responsibility for the following week of "More Than a Woman" blaring from phone speakers intermittently in the Sox clubhouse at the feet of fellow reliever Tyler Gilbert, whose deep catalogue of musical knowledge and multi-instrument prowess put the rookie onto the '70s banger in the first place. And for his part, Gilbert discusses the episode with resignation of a man who feels like he may have created a monster.
But the very idea of lightening up the clubhouse of a last-place, rebuilding ballclub with the vocal stylings of the Gibb brothers is a compelling distillation of the Vasil ethos. He wasn't in spring training with this team, his big league experience is scant and his role on the roster is evolving day-by-day, but he is here and he is not hiding his true self.
"He's somebody you can talk to," said fellow Rule 5 pick Shane Smith, a more emotionally reserved counterbalance to his friend and former Massachusetts high school rival. "Whether he had a good day or a bad day, Mike's usually the same guy, and I think a lot of people respect that. He's somebody who's going to have a good time and enjoy what he's doing every day, and I think everybody can learn from that."
"I do like to keep things loose and energetic and fun," Vasil said. "Because we are playing a very stressful game. You've got to have fun with what we're doing at the same time. That's mostly what I try and do, being able to bring good energy and be the same guy every day, and be a good teammate."
The typical MLB practices of team-building have multiple instances of rookies addressing the group as part of getting-to-know-you exercises. The typical night in an MLB bullpen has plenty of hours, in between observing the game and limbering up, to fill with stories and banter. Teammates indicate that Vasil's gift for oration plays up in both settings.
"It's great to get into our own little area and let him go for nine innings," Booser said.
"I've never really had trouble with public speaking, I don't know why," Vasil said. "At the same time I do like my alone time, I am a human. But for me, talking to people is kind of who I am. I feel like I can have a convo with anybody about anything."
In his postgame interview after Vasil's first save, Davis Martin made the sort of verbal slip-up that's more enjoyable than if he said it correctly, telling reporters "Mike Vasil is a big fan of everybody on the team," instead of vice versa. Both Martin and Vasil argued that both iterations are spiritually accurate.
"It's kind of like the Dos Equis man," Martin explained. "He's the most interesting man in the world. You're like 'why?' and he just is. He exists, and he is Mike Vasil. There's really no other way to put it."
To a degree that always hard to pin down in the baseball social system, it helps that Vasil is also getting outs. After getting knocked around in the Mets' Triple-A rotation last year, Vasil has a 2.30 ERA in 31⅓ relief innings that have run the gamut in terms of leverage. The peripheral numbers are not great, what with 20 walks (three intentional) to 19 strikeouts, and the Sox are gun-shy about returning him to starting anytime soon.
But there's a nice little 50.5 percent ground ball rate to fall back on. And while Smith warps everyone's expectations for a Rule 5 pick by pitching like an All-Star, Vasil is impressing the coaching staff by keeping his head above water while undergoing a change in his approach that emphasizes his sinker and changeup to a higher degree.
"Katz and I talked about how right-on-right changeups was some low-hanging fruit for potential swing-and-miss," Vasil said. "If I'm locating my sinker well, there isn't a ton of vertical separation, but there's a ton of speed difference. My changeup is more depthy than my sinker, so it creates enough separation in terms of vertical movement."
The White Sox have already used 44 different players this season, so making new locker nameplates for the home clubhouse is nothing out of the ordinary. But Vasil's responsiveness to coaching would partially serve to explain why his locker recently completed a multi-day run with a placard that read "Matt Wise Jr., 61"
Or at least, that's a theory. The reasons offered for why Vasil's teammates have suggested he is the progeny of the assistant pitching coach are varying and ... nebulous.
"Matt Wise Jr. is his alter ego, I believe," Martin said. "There's a lot of personalities in that body. We might need to get one of those things behind the plate where they scroll the ads and have it going on his name plate."
From an outside observer's viewpoint, Vasil is a bigger fan of the Bee Gees than he was of his alternate nameplate. But the White Sox operate off the theory that underneath every good ribbing is a note of acceptance.
"We all take our work very seriously, so there's certain stuff we do every day that we're very focused and locked in on," Vasil said. "It's the easy things you do as a teammate that go a further way; be on time, do your stuff. All that little stuff that goes into being part of a team, I think if you take care of those things, guys on the team will kind of let you just be who you are."
As the White Sox continue to be a waypoint for a wide variety of players who are just trying to find a foothold in the majors, having someone being so comfortable in his own skin and having a blast doing it might just be a thing that helps beyond the stat line.
"This is my first time doing all this, so this is new for me and also new for Mike," Smith said. "For Mike to be himself and enjoy every moment, it livens guys up a little bit. Not to make light of what we're doing, but just enjoy it. And maybe have a smile on your face."
