Ballou on Baseball - July 2, 2025

By Bill Ballou,

Durability, reliability and consistency are old-fashioned concepts in this baseball era of the infinite Injured List. There is a lot to be said for just showing up, though.

The Cy Young Award is, after all, named after the pitcher who holds the record for most career losses.

As you may have noticed, things have not gone well in Boston in recent days. Sometimes change for the sake of change works out, but it is not a long-term solution. Talent is. As the Boston Red Sox seek ways to improve their record for the final three months of the season, they should look to Worcester.

They have already done that several times in 2025. Boston’s looking would turn to overlooking, however, if the Sox did not give serious consideration to bringing up Vaughn Grissom and, or, Isaiah Campbell. Both have been among the WooSox’ most dependable players. Both have performed well enough to rate a look.

Grissom leads the team in games played with 71, hits (73), runs (48) and is tied with Nate Eaton for tops in doubles (19). If Grissom stays in Worcester he is on a pace to break the team records for hits, games played and doubles.

His batting average is an unspectacular .266, his OPS .756.

However, he can make plays. The Boston Red Sox have lost several games this year due to bad defense in the obvious area of errors. They have lost several more by simply failing to make outs that should have been made. Grissom would help there.

Baseball savant Terry Francona, back in Boston this week with the Reds, was not much on defensive metrics. His definition of good defense was, “The ball winds up where it’s supposed to.” That has not been happening enough at Fenway Park for going on two years now.

Grissom would help with that.

Campbell has been a bullpen workhorse, a luxury for Chad Tracy. Campbell lead the WooSox in appearances, losses and saves and is tied for first in wins with former WooSox Brian Van Belle. In this day of homer-or-nothing offenses, Campbell has given up just two in 37 1/3 innings.

Both Grissom and Campbell have had brief previous stints in Boston that did not go well. It is time for a second chance for both. Triple-A is not just about development. There is a redevelopment aspect as well, and whatever the major league Sox are doing right now is not working.

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TRIPLE-A TRIVIA

1. Who is the only Worcester Red Sox starting pitcher to carry a no-hitter into the ninth inning?

2. What three current cities in the International League were also in the IL — then called the Eastern League — when Worcester was a member from 1899 into 1903?

Answers below.

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WooSox TV analyst J.P. Ricciardi spoke on a recent broadcast about the incredible turnover on Triple-A rosters, particularly Worcester’s, in recent years.

Some research came up with these numbers:

The WooSox employed 84 different players in 2024, a Boston Triple-A record. They used 37 position players and 47 pitchers. Ten years ago, in 2014 for Pawtucket, those numbers were 67 players; 34 and 37. In 2004 it was 54 players, 22 and 32. In 1994 it was 42, 25 and 17. In 1984 the numbers were 34 total, 16 and 18.

In 1979 the PawSox used just 29 players for the season. That included 16 position players and just 13 pitchers.

So far this season the WooSox have used 61 players, 24 positional and 37 pitchers.

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Manager Chad Tracy will never be a Worcester native but he is on his way to honorary status. Tracy took his kids candlepin bowling in June, which is like getting his learner’s permit on the way to a real Worcester native license. … The wild 12-10 WooSox victory over Buffalo on June 22 lasted 3:34. It is the longest regulation game Worcester has played since the start of the 2023 season. … In that same game both teams hit grand slams, Corey Rosier for the WooSox and Michael Stefanic for the Bisons. That had happened only once before in team history, on April 5, 2024, also versus Buffalo at Polar Park. Romy Gonzalez did it for Worcester, Nathan Lukes for Buffalo. … Along those lines, Worcester batters hit six grand slams in each of the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons. The WooSox have already hit seven in 2025. They are 21-7 all-time when a batter hits a grand slam. … Speaking of Rosier, judging by the trajectory of his Polar Park home runs, he must hit a 9-iron about 220 yards. … There was little good news to come out of last week’s road trip to S-W-B. Topping that list is the fact that RailRiders southpaw Erick Leal went into the series with a 1-7 record and had not recorded a win since April 15. He went 2-0 and gave up just four earned runs in 12 innings versus the WooSox.

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If I were commissioner of baseball, an unlikely possibility for sure, I would ban the term “quality start.” It requires a pitcher to allow not more than three runs in a span of six innings. That is a 4.50 ERA. That might be quality, but it is is not high quality. Aside from that, the way starting pitchers are used these days, staying in a game for six innings probably means you have not given up many runs, period. … The difference between rehab stats and pennies is that rehab assignments are not likely to outlawed. Thus, maybe Tanner Houck’s rough return to Worcester is not significant. So far, though, Houck already has one more loss in three appearances than he did in nine games during his previous stints here. He surrendered two home runs in the fourth inning on Sunday and had given up just one total in 11 previous outings for Worcester. Houk still has not recorded a win in a WooSox uniform.

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CATCHING UP WITH….

First baseman Josh Ockimey, who finished second to Jarren Duran in home runs for the 2021 WooSox, is a pro scout with the Kansas City Royals.

Infielder Yu Chang, who spent a little time in Worcester near the end of the 2023 season, is on the rostr of the Fubon Guardians in Taiwan in the Chinese Professional Baseball League. He is playing on a three-year contract worth 90 million. That is about $3 million in U.S. dollars. Another former WooSox player, pitcher Rio Gomez, was also with Fubon but was released after an arm injury.

Michael Chavis is having a solid season with Oklahoma City, the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in the Pacific Coast League. He is batting .291 with 13 homers and 45 RBIs. One of his teammates is Millbury native Ryan Ward, who is hitting .297 with 20 homers and 63 RBIs.

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Aside from the fact that they all played for the WooSox, what do Grant Williams, Devlin Granberg, Nathan Hickey, Bobby Dalbec and Blake Sabol have in common?

They have all hit Grand Slam triples, three-baggers that drove in three runs. It has happened just five times in 654 WooSox games through the years. Sabol’s was the most recent. It was the big hit in Worcester’s 9-4 victory over Buffalo two Thursdays ago.

Williams did it on Sept. 2, 2021 in a 10-2 victory in Rochester, Granberg on July 3, 2022 in a 9-8 loss, also at Rochester. Hickey’s came on April 27, 2024 in Toledo, a game the WooSox lost by 8-7. Dalbec’s grand slam triple happened on Aug. 18, 2024 at Polar Park as the home team beat Lehigh Valley, 10-8.

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TRIVIA ANSWERS

1. Daniel Gossett hurled eight innings of no-hit ball at Lehigh Valley on Oct. 2, 2021. Nick Maton led off the bottom of the ninth with an infield single and after future WooSox outfielder Dalton Guthrie lined out to left, Gossett was relieved by Geoff Hartlieb and Worcester won, 7-0.

2. Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse were all members of the International (Eastern) League while Worcester had a franchise just before, and just after, the turn of the 19th Century.