Buddy Boshers Looking for MLB Success with Blue Jays

Buddy Boshers is a current Toronto Blue Jays minor leaguer, pitching for the Jays Triple-A affiliate, Buffalo Bisons.

Boshers has had quite the baseball story since he first started pro baseball in 2008. After five years working his way up through the Los Angeles Angels system, he was promoted to the big leagues on August 10, 2013 and spent the final two months of the season in a middle-relief role, throwing in 25 games while allowing only 13 hits. The following season, the southpaw wasn’t called up and spent the entire season in the minors. The next season, Boshers signed with the Colorado Rockies but was released after spring training.

At 27, with no team to report to, he decided to roll the dice and turn to independent baseball, signing a contract with the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB).

The Atlantic League is known for sending players back to affiliated ball, and in the 21 years of existence it has sent 900 players to affiliated ball and 20 players to the big leagues.

Somerset Patriots

“It’s actually a really competitive league…I would compare it to Double-A or Triple-A ball for the most part. A lot of guys I played with had big league experience so it’s not just somewhere you go to play ball.”

Boshers dominated with the Patriots, posting an ERA of 1.00 and leading the Patriots to the 2015 league championship. Following the season, his contract was purchased by the Minnesota Twins, and only a few months after he was playing independent baseball in Somerset, New Jersey he pitched on a big league mound for the first time in three years. Boshers combined for 75 outings throughout his two seasons with the Twins, putting up an era a little above 4.                                                                                                                         

“Honestly It’s really surreal knowing that I was out of affiliated ball for a year and getting back and knowing that if you just trust the process and keep doing what you’re doing… It will work,”  Boshers tells me.

Hannah Foslien/Getty Images

After bouncing around in the minors between teams such as the Pirates, Astros and Reds, Boshers has settled in with the Jays, and is looking to make another major comeback in his career to the bigs. With Triple-A he has posted a 2.70 ERA  and is hoping to help the struggling Blue Jays come into the second half strong if he is able to get the call.

“ (I’m) Just trying to get back to the ultimate goal which is being in the big leagues… You just have to trust the process and stick with it.”