Ballou on Baseball - June 3, 2025

By Bill Ballou

The milestone passed without much notice but Chad Tracy managed his 500th game for Worcester last Saturday in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre.

The Boston Red Sox have had Triple-A affiliates since 1934. In the 94 seasons since then only nine men have managed 500 or more games. Joe Morgan has managed the most, 1,259. They were all with Pawtucket.

Morgan was 601-658. Only five of the nine in the 500 Club have winning records. That includes Tracy. Heading into this week he was 261-240.

Triple-A baseball is all about preparing players for the major leagues. It used to be all about preparing managers as well but that has changed. From 1955 through 1994, seven of Boston’s 12 managers were hired after managing the Sox’ Triple-A team.

That has not happened since Butch Hobson was fired at the end of 1994. Torey Lovullo is a special case. He managed Pawtucket in 2010, then took over in Boston for John Farrell late in 2015 when he was being treated for cancer.

Lovullo is not officially credited with those 48 games in 2015 but is a big league manager now with the Diamondbacks.

Is Tracy on track to manage in the majors?

Probably, and he is assembling an excellent resume. These days, time on a major league coaching staff is essential, even more so than running a Triple-A team. That would be Tracy’s next move.

Would that move be to Boston, though? Coaches have even less job security than managers. If the major league Red Sox continue to struggle, there could be openings up there. If not, there will be plenty of coaching openings overall at the end of this season.

There always are even though coaches — how can your fire a first base coach — are almost never to blame for a team’s problems. Tracy would be a good fit in a lot of places and four years at this level should be enough.

He has done an excellent job here, for sure. Major League teams love to think they can have it both ways at Triple-A. They can win and develop players at the same time.

That is easier to say than do. Under Tracy the WooSox have, indeed, done both.

Not very long ago it seemed that playing in the major leagues was a requirement to manage in them. Not now. There are many good big league managers around who were not major league players. How about Brian Snitker, Joe Espada or Pat Murphy, for instance?

It can take a while to make the move from Triple-A to the majors no matter what your job description. Cam Booser, Ryan Fitzgerald, Jamie Westbrook, etc. can attest to that. Given his performance here in Worcester for more than 500 games, Tracy should already be on Major League team’s radar.

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TRIPLE-A TRIVIA

1. What opposition ballpark have WooSox batters hit the most home runs in?
2. Which Worcester Red Sox pitcher holds the team record for most innings pitched in a season without giving up a home run?

Answers below.

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June has arrived. That means the season is at the point where it is not too early to evaluate where things are and not too late to change them.

The Worcester Red Sox have never had a losing season. If they can finish in the black in 2025 it will mark first time since 1957 through 1962 that Boston’s Triple-A team has had that kind of streak.

Those six seasons involved three different affiliates including San Francisco, Minneapolis and Seattle.

After 56 games this year the WooSox were 28-28. How do the 2025 numbers match up with the previous three seasons, not including 2021 which started late because of Covid and was shortened?

Worcester has never been above .500 at this point in a season. The WooSox were 26-30 in both 2023 and 2024. They were 28-28 in 2022.

Other comparisons show that their .260 team batting average is the best over the past four seasons as is their 4.67 ERA. Worcester’s power numbers are off, perhaps due to the weather. The WooSox’ 60 homers are their fewest in comparison, with 78 being the high in 2023.

Strikeouts are the fewest in the four seasons at 521. They were 544 last year. The WooSox have slowed down on the basepaths. Their 44 steals are the least in the last four years.

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If it seems hard to believe that a team could strand 15 men on base and not score at least one run, that’s because it is. Or was. When the WooSox left 15 men on base Saturday in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre and were shut out, that was a franchise first. The only time they have stranded more than that in a regulation game was last Aug. 7 when they left 16 men on at Syracuse, but won, 9-6. … There are no words in baseball more misleading than “high leverage” and “low leverage” for relief pitchers. Those are fancy phrases for “we have a chance to win” and “mopup.” … Roman Anthony’s home run to open the game at Scranton-Wilkes-Barre last Tuesday was the third leadoff homer of his WooSox career. He is tied with David Hamilton for Worcester’s all-time lead in that category. It has happened 10 times so far and the WooSox are 6-4 in those games.

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This columnist has seen thousands of baseball games through the years and not recall any third baseman at any level who makes the barehand throw from the foul line better than Nate Eaton, who earned his brief promotion to Boston … Jhostynxon Garcia set one WooSox record and tied another in his debut game on the last homestand. His first name has 10 letters, breaking the mark set by pitcher Darwinzon Hernandez with nine. Garcia also homered in his first game for Worcester. That has been done several times, but only five times in a player’s Triple-A debut. The others are Triston Casas, Pedro Castellanos, David Hamilton and Alex Binelas. … Trayce Thompson snapped his team-record 29-game strikeout streak last Wednesday in Scranton-Wilkes-Barre. He has fanned at least once in 33 of the 35 games he has appeared in so far. …Bryan Mata has allowed at least one run in 13 of his 15 appearances, an unimpressive stat. However, the WooSox are 11-4 in games he has appeared in, an impressive stat. … Brian Van Belle had two 7-inning starts in a span of nine days late last month. Robert Stock had one on May 16, also. WooSox pitchers had two such outings combined in all of 2024. Worcester’s all-time record is 24-2 when a starter goes at least seven innings.

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CATCHING UP WITH….

Defensively gifted infielder Yolmer Sanchez is playing Triple-A for the Angels farm team in Salt Lake City. Sanchez is batting .240 and is mostly playing second base. Two of his first baseman so far this season are former WooSox slugger Niko Kavadas and current Worcester player Ryan Noda.

WooSox record setter Kyle Barraclough, who won eight straight decisions in 2023, is 4-0 for the High Point Rockers of the Atlantic League, the same team Worcester got him from in ’23.

Outfielder Mark Contreras is also in the Atlantic League. He is playing for Staten Island and hitting .226. That is slightly lower than one of his teammates, former Red Sox infielder Pablo Sandoval. He is batting .244.

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TRIVIA ANSWERS

1. Worcester hitters have launched 81 home runs in NBT Park in Syracuse. They have not as many as 60 in any other road ballpark. Connor Wong and Bobby Dalbec lead the way individually with six apiece.
2. Cooper Criswell worked 25 2/3 innings in 2024 and did not allow a home run.