Ballou on Baseball - May 20, 2025

By Bill Ballou

Player development is like Tiramisu. The recipe differs from restaurant to restaurant or in baseball, from team to team.

As the Boston Red Sox bumper-car their way through the early part of the 2025 season, sentiment — at least from outside the organization — grows for them to promote Roman Anthony to the major leagues.

Anthony is certainly living up to his projection as one of baseball’s best prospects. He is doing everything right in Worcester and heads into this week playing better and better. If he is that good, if he is ready for the majors, so what if Boston has no place to put him?

Make one.

He just turned 21 and has 76 games of Triple-A experience on his resume. In the modern baseball world, that is plenty depending on the organization. Wilyer Abreu had 86 before establishing himself as a big leaguer. Jarren Duran had a lot at 139. Connor Wong had 131, Triston Casas 81.

Kristian Campbell made the majors with 19 Triple-A games to his credit but he is not quite established. Ced**danne Rafaela** had 48, but is not a career major leaguer either at this point.

Looking at previous Boston prospects with backgrounds like Anthony’s, Xander Bogaerts was 20 years old with 60 Triple-A games when he came to the majors to stay in 2013. Rafael Devers was 20, with just 15 Triple-A games in 2017.

Mookie Betts played 45 games at Triple-A before embarking on his likely Hall of Fame career.

The last Red Sox player to advance to Boston without playing a game in Triple-A was Andrew Benintendi, who probably hasn’t been as good as expected, but has had a solid career.

Bogaerts and Devers both arrived in the majors later in the season and for teams that were in first place. They were additions to already good teams. Neither was expected to create a turnaround. Anthony would be. That is a different mindset and level of expectation.

Leave him here for a while. The season is not yet lost in Boston. Like Tiramisu, the recipe for developing Anthony into a standout is different than the ones for players like Bogaerts and Devers.

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TRIPLE-A TRIVIA

1. What pitcher holds the WooSox single-season record for most games worked without recording a decision, win or loss?

2. Which NCAA college has produced the most Worcester Red Sox players?

Answers below.

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Ryan Fitzgerald made his major league debut Friday night for the Twins after playing 768 games in the minors, including 84 with the independent Chicago Dogs. Also playing in that game were Kody Clemens, son of former PawSox and Red Sox star Roger Clemens as well as Christian Vazquez, also a PawSox and Red Sox alum.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli played briefly for the 2009 PawSox.

Fitzgerald is the 41st player to make his big league debut after playing for Worcester. He is almost 31, the second-oldest such WooSox alum. Cam Booser was almost 32.

The other five Worcester grads to debut in the majors this season are Justin Hagenman (Mets), Chase Meidroth (White Sox), Matthew Lugo (Angels), and Hunter Dobbins & Kristian Campbell (Red Sox).

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The Durham Bulls provide this week’s opposition at Polar Park. Fans should get a chance to see pitcher Ian Seymour, who grew up in Westboro and went to St. John’s. Seymour, who is Durham’s probable starter for Thursday’s 11:05 am game, is having a fine season with a 4-2 record and 2.40 earned run average. He has pitched in nine games, eight of them starts.

The Bulls are good, per usual. They bring a 28-17 record into the series. This is their third-ever visit to Worcester and the WooSox have a 7-5 edge in previous games. Durham’s roster includes Jamie Westbrook, who had a fine season here last year and made his major league debut along the way.

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CATCHING UP WITH….

Norwith Gudino is with Tabasco of the Mexican League after starting the season with Laredo. He is 0-2 with a 10.29 ERA to start the season. Dalton Guthrie is playing for the Gastonia Ghost Peppers of the Atlantic League. Guthrie is batting .255 through 15 games. Catcher Kole Kottam, who got into 14 games for Worcester in 2022, is hitting .206 in 17 games for the Lexington Legends, also of the Atlantic League

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Philip Sikes made a bit of WooSox history with his two homers at Buffalo Friday. Sikes is the only Worcester player to both hit, and give up, a home run in the same season. He has allowed one as a late-inning hurler. Sikes joins Tate Matheny and Edd**y Alvarez* as position players who have also pitched for the WooSox. … *Nathan Hickey* has reached the list of WooSox players with at least 20 career home runs. He has exactly 20. That ties him with three other players for 10th on the team’s all-time list. *Bobby Dalbec* leads it with 58. The others with 20 are *Franchy Cordero, **Nick Sogard and Johan Mieses. Hickey has picked his spots well. Fourteen of the 20 have come with somebody on base. … Trayce Thompson had struck out at least once in 25 straight games heading into the week. That shattered the previous Worcester record of 21, done by both David Hamilton and Niko Kavadas. … Corey Rosier is hitting .118 in eight games batting eighth in the order, .311 in 15 games in the No. 9 spot.

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Worcester pitchers threw 200 of them in last Thursday’s 12-1 defeat in Buffalo. That was just the second time that has happened in a road game and its eight innings of work. No surprise here — the WooSox are 0-10 when their pitchers break the 200 mark. … Alex Hoppe’s debut last week made him the second Iowa native to play for Worcester. The rookie pitcher joined another pitcher, Matt Dermody, on that short list. … It does not qualify as major revenge, but when Athletics catcher Jhonny Pereda — the ex-WooSox receiver — struck out Shohei Ohtani last week it sort of interrupted a streak. Each of Ohtani’s three previous home runs had been against former Worcester pitchers. There were two off Jason Alexander, another off Ryan Zeferjahn. … Robert Stock’s seven inning start at Buffalo marked just the third time a Worcester pitcher had gone that long since the beginning of the 2023 season. … N**ate Eaton* is on pace to hit 44 doubles in 2025. That would be a new Boston Triple-A record. Earl Snyder had 43 for the 2004 Pawtucket Red Sox. The WooSox record is 27, set by *Ronaldo Hernandez** in 2022.

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On occasion, mention is made that Red Sox reliever Justin Wilson is the son of a former Boston farmhand, Jim Wilson. Jim Wilson spent parts of three seasons playing for the WooSox’ predecessor in Pawtucket. He hit .241 with 8 homers and 63 RBIs from 1981 to 1983. Jim Wilson’s teammates with the PawSox included Wade Boggs, Marty Barrett, Mark Fidrych, Oil Can Boyd, Rich Gedman, Bruce Hurst and Bobby Ojeda, among others.

TRIVIA ANSWERS

1. Zack Kelly appeared in nine games for Worcester in 2024 and did not have a decision. Kelly allowed only one hit and no runs in 12 2/3 innings in those games.

2. The University of Arizona has produced five alumni who have played for the WooSox. They are Jett Bandy, Rob Refsnyder, Rio Gomez, Bobby Dalbec and Cam Cannon.