Ballou on Baseball - September 24, 2025

The fifth season of Worcester Red Sox baseball is in the books, although it was not necessarily one for the books.

With so many WooSox players spending much of the year with Boston there were few individual milestones reached or records set. The team overall did a bit better in those categories, though.

The WooSox found a way to finish above .500 even though late in the season they were playing games with Seby Zavala (.175 average) and Chadwick Tromp (.095) at Designated Hitter. Worcester has finished all five of its seasons at Polar Park in the black.

The only other of the 20 International League teams to finish above .500 for the last five years is Nashville. The WooSox have the fifth-best record in the league for that span behind Nashville, Durham, Scranton-Wilkes-Barre and Jacksonville.

Chad Tracy became the first Red Sox Triple-A manager to have four straight winning seasons going back to 1937. His 309 wins are eighth on that all-time list.

Worcester was the only one of Boston’s four minor league traveling teams to finish with a winning record. Overall, including the complex teams, the farm system was 344-370, its worst mark since Major League Baseball took over the minors starting with 2021.

How much does that matter?

There is no definite answer. The years before Boston won World Series in 2018, 2013 and 2007 the farm system had an overall winning record. In 2003, though, the Sox’ minor leagues went 379-414.

At the box office, the WooSox sold more than 500,000 tickets for the fourth straight year. They are the only one of baseball’s 120 minor league teams to do that. Four years is really the maximum in that category since the 2021 season was abbreviated due to Covid restrictions.

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Nathan Hickey hit 17 home runs. He finished the year with 30 career homers with the WooSox, one of just five Worcester players to reach that level. Hickey is behind Bobby Dalbec, Ronaldo Hernandez, Ryan Fitzgerald and Jeter Downs on the list.

Hickey played in 128 games, most ever for a WooSox player and the most for a Sox Triple-A team since Chris Marrero got into 131 for the PawSox in 2016. He played in each of the last 39 games of the season. Hickey played in 72 games at first base, totaling 584 innings, and committed just one error.

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Noah Song is merely the fourth player from the Naval Academy to play professional baseball and the first in the Red Sox organization. One of the other three is Gardner native Oliver Drake, who had a 13-year pro career that included stops in Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Toronto, Minnesota and the Los Angeles Angels. … Jhostynxon Garcia faded badly after returning following his promotion to Boston. He still finished the Triple-A season as the WooSox home run leader with 18 playing in only 81 games. That is the second-most by a Triple-A rookie in Worcester history behind Wilyer Abreu’s 22 in 2023. … Among position players who got into at least 50 games, the WooSox had their best records with Seby Zavala (39-26), Roman Anthony (33-25), Nate Eaton (50-42) and Garcia (44-37) in the starting lineup. For pitchers with at least 10 appearances the leaders were Shane Drohan (9-3), Isaiah Campbell (28-15), Hobe Harris (18-13) and Bryan Mata (24-18).

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WooSox players produced some forgettable records, as well, in 2025. Jose De Leon set a Boston Triple-A record, going back to 1937, for the most losses in a season without recording a win at 0-9. The only pitchers approaching that were Robert Austin, who was 0-7 for the 1952 Louisville Colonels, and Juan Pena at 1-9 for the 2012 PawSox

However, De Leon did not match the Boston Triple-A record for most games below .500. Kevin Morton was 2-12 for the PawSox in 1992. Kris Johnson was 3-13 for Pawtucket in 2009.

Worcester’s catching duo to finish the year, Zavala and Tromp, both posted some offensive milestones but on the down side. Zavala’s .165 batting average in 212 plate appearances was the second-worst in Boston Triple-A history for that many PA. Another catcher, Tim Spehr, hit .150 in 273 plate appearances for the PawSox in 2000.

Tromp hit .135 in 104 Worcester plate appearances. That is the worst ever for a batter with at least 104 times up. The previous record holder was Al Montreuil, a second baseman with Toronto in 1967. He batted .146 in 114 plate appearances.

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Rich Gedman was at the ballpark over the weekend, looking surprisingly good after sustaining a bizarre facial injury during a pre-game warmup on the road trip to Syracuse. No doubt he’ll be at full strength for the 2026 season. … A couple of oddities from 2025’s final homestand. The WooSox had both a sacrifice and sacrifice fly on Tuesday, a 6-5 victory. They have won six straight games when that happens and are 9-2 all-time. In Thursday’s 10-1 defeat they had 10 hits but just one run for merely the second time in franchise history. Also, Worcester used six pitchers in that game and added up their earned run averages totaled 52.09.

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Dante Ricciardi, the Red Sox Scout of the Year in 2024 and son of the WooSox Hall of Famer, has been signed by the Dodgers to work in their scouting department. He scouted in Florida for Boston and has a chance to come back to the Northeast for Los Angeles at some point. … Yasmani Grandal was the oldest player to wear a WooSox uniform this season at 36. For the second straight year the youngest was Roman Anthony, who turned 21 on May 13. Grandal was born in 1988, a playoff year for Boston. Anthony was born in 2004 — same thing. Anthony is one of a select few players who has been the youngest guy on the roster for more than one season. The last was Rafael Devers, youngest PawSox player in both 2017 and 2018.