Ballou on Baseball - September 10, 2025

He is not the WooSox MVP but Seby Zavala might be their MIP — Most Interesting Player.

The veteran catcher is not going to hit .200. However, Worcester’s record with him behind the plate is much better than with anyone else back there and the WooSox have used a lot of catchers this season. Zavala had 33 hits through last weekend, 18 of them for extra bases, eight for home runs.

There are not many Cal Raleighs in baseball today — one, actually — and there have not been many through the centuries. Catcher can be a hard position to evaluate through hard numbers.

And that is not how WooSox manager Chad Tracy evaluates Zavala.

“His average is probably not going to be .200,” he said, “but there are eight home runs in there, there are some big home runs, some big hits. There’s a safety squeeze, a walkoff sacrifice bunt, a sacrifice fly, and a clutch, 2-out, 2-run game-winning walk-off single in Game 1 of last Sunday’s doubleheader vs. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

“He’s a pro.”

Zavala just turned 32 and catches some WooSox pitchers of his generation, but more importantly of the next generation.

“You’d love to have nine hitters in your lineup that are all batting .300,” Tracy said, “but that’s not realistic….you realize the value he’s going to bring with pushing the proper buttons, blocking the ball, receiving it, stealing strikes, conversations he has with pitchers…all of those things you can’t necessarily measure.”

Baseball is batting, pitching and defense. Defense is the hardest of the three to quantify so it can be overlooked.

“Run scoring and run prevention are two sides of the game,” Tracy said. “He is elite at helping us prevent runs and that’s what his job it.”

Zavala’s offensive contributions are irregular but not irrelevant. They have made him one of Worcester’s MIPs in 2025.

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TRIPLE-A TRIVIA

1. Which pitcher holds the Worcester Red Sox record for most earned runs allowed in a game?
2. Which batter owns the WooSox record for most home runs hit in the ninth inning or later?

Answers below.

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August ended with the WooSox winning in Durham as they hit four home runs including one of each kind. It marked the third time ever, second this season, when Worcester batters homered for the cycle. The other homer item from that game? It featured three home runs by switch hitters, two by Tyler McDonough and one by Abraham Toro. That had only happened once before for the WooSox. It was on May 23, 2023 when Niko Goodrum hit two and Nick Sogard one. … Zack Kelly is the only player to be with the WooSox for all five of their seasons in town. In that span he has appeared in 92 games and never worked more than two innings in a game or thrown more than 46 pitches in a game. In last Wednesday’s game at Fenway Park, Kelly worked four full innings and threw 63 pitches.

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CATCHING UP WITH…

Reliever Dinelson Lamet has been with two foreign teams this season and spent most of the year in the Mexican League with Veracruz. He has also pitched for the TSG Hawks in Taiwan. Dinelson is 7-6 in 19 starts combined.

Infielder Jack Lopez, an early standout with the WooSox in their inaugual 2021 season, is with the Mariners Triple-A team in nearby Tacoma. He is batting .230 with a .616 OPS in 101 games.

Slow-throwing southpaw Alex Claudio is 3-1 in 42 relief appearances in the Mexican League. He has pitched for Saltillo and the Mexico City Reds.

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Payton Tolle is the 48th player to graduate to the major leagues after playing in Worcester. He is also the quickest to go from his Triple-A debut to the big leagues — 19 days. Tolle barely beats Brandon Walter, another lefty, who took 20 days in 2022 to go from debuting here in Triple-A to pitching in Boston. … Staff workhorse Isaiah Campbell heads into the season’s closing weeks with a chance at a rare pitching triple crown. He is leading the team in wins, losses and saves. … Worcester batters struck out at least 10 times in 10 straight games from Aug. 24 through Sept. 4. That broke the old team record of at least 10Ks in eight consecutive games. The Woo Sox fanned 120 times during the streak and went 4-6. Opposing batters fanned 101 times during the streak, in comparison. … Tyler Uberstine has been one of Worcester’s most valuable pitchers over the course of the season despite that fact that he has given up a team-high 16 home runs. It helps that he doesn’t put many men on base. Of those 16 homers, 11 have been solo and five have happened with one runner on. … In a similar vein, Kristian Campbell has 12 career home runs for the WooSox, 10 of them with at least runner on. That includes six two-run shots and four beloved three-run home runs. … Rookie Connelly Early joined some impressive company with his start on Sept. 2. He struck out 10 and did not walk anyone. The only other WooSox pitcher to do something like that is Jason Alexander. He went Early one better last Sept. 11 with 11 strikeouts and zero walks in a win against Syracuse at Polar Park. Alexander has pitched for two big league teams this season, the Athletics and Astros, and is 4-1 with a 4.68 ERA. … The WooSox are in the plus column for their 10 doubleheaders this season with a 12-8 mark overall. First game or second does not matter. Worcester is 6-4 in first games, 6-4 in seconds.

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TRIVIA ANSWERS

1. Brian Van Belle was charged with nine earned runs in four innings on May 8, 2024 in a Buffalo in the first game of a doubleheader. Worcester lost, 11-2.
2. Jeter Downs hit five home runs in the ninth inning or later during his WooSox career. Four were in the ninth, one in the 10th.

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Congratulations to Chad Tracy for earning his 300th career win in a WooSox uniform. He is the sixth to reach that plateau in Pawtucket-Worcester history, the ninth in the history of Boston’s various Triple-A partners. He ended the weekend with 302 wins after Worcester’s victory over Scranton-Wilkes-Barre in Game One on Sunday, tying Ed Nottle.

Nemo Leibold, Bill Burwell and Mike Higgins all won 300 or more before the Pawtucket Red Sox were established.

The WooSox have had three straight winning seasons under Tracy. Going all the way back to the 1930s when the team established a farm system, no Boston Triple-A manager has had four in a row. Tracy is right on the edge as the season winds down.

This is a critical time in Tracy’s career during, which he has been established as a potential major league manager. If he does not move up soon, most likely to a major league staff and not necessarily in Boston, Tracy risks being labeled a career minor leaguer. He is better than that.