WORCESTER — WooSox catcher Mickey Gasper has a new nickname around the dugout.
“The guys are joking and calling him Babe Gasper,” manager Chad Tracy said. “That’s the way he swung the bat.”
Hyperbole? Sure. But what Gasper has done since his promotion to Triple-A Worcester is eye-opening. Coming into Friday night’s game, the 28-year-old hit .410 with a .500 OBP and .672 slugging percentage in 17 games with the WooSox. He’s driven in 13 runs and blasted three home runs and seven doubles. He’s struck out just five times in 72 plate appearances.
“He has been really, really good since he’s got here,” Tracy said. “I know he was doing really, really well in Portland as well. It’s not just like a flash in the pan. He’s had a hell of a season.”
Gasper was raised in Merrimack, N.H., but was born in New Jersey. He said the Gaspers were Yankees fans growing up, and despite trying to make the transition to supporting the Red Sox as a new New Englander, it didn’t stick.
“We tried…there was a good picture of me with like a Yankee shirt on and a Red Sox hat at Fenway when I was little,” Gasper said with a laugh. “We stuck with the Yankee fans, but [there have been] a lot of Red Sox ties in my career.”
When Gasper was in high school, he took lessons at The Show baseball academy out of Lawrence, Mass. He learned there from instructors Steve Lomasney, a former Red Sox catcher, and Chad Epperson, who caught eight years in the minor leagues and has coached in the Red Sox system since 2002. Gasper than played for Epperson in Portland to start this season.
He graduated from Merrimack High and spent four years playing ball at Bryant University in Rhode Island before he was drafted by the team he grew up rooting for, with the Yankees taking him in the 27th round in 2018.
Mickey Gasper behind the plate during the WooSox game on July 4, 2024 at Polar Park. (Katie Morrison-O’Day / MassLive)
Gasper steadily climbed through the minors until spending parts of three seasons at Double-A Somerset, who play in Bridgewater, N.J. He got to live at home with his parents in Jersey and hit off the tee every morning with his dad.
When he was promoted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre midway through last year, he hit a rough patch, batting just .191 in 22 games.
But sometimes a change of scenery can make a big difference, and Gasper wouldn’t have to go too far. The Red Sox took him in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft this past offseason, and Gasper has thrived between Double-A Portland and Worcester.
He impressed in 44 games with the Sea Dogs, posting a .282/.403/.458 slash line and earning a promotion to Worcester. In his second stint in Triple A, things have gone much more smoothly for the catcher.
“I had a little taste of it last year and that was kind of getting my feet wet, and I dealt with some failure,” Gasper said. “I really just had a clear mind here and I knew what didn’t work last year and I just stuck to the plan and stuck to my process.”
Gasper has made an already tricky lineup situation that much more difficult for Tracy to manage. With Nathan Hickey, Mark Koloszary and Tyler Heineman all vying for starts behind the plate and Niko Kavadas and Bobby Dalbec seeing plenty of time at first, Gasper has moved around between catching, playing first and DHing.
“There’s times where I have to take him out, but I really don’t want to because of the quality of his at-bats, how good they’ve been,” Tracy said.
Unsurprisingly, Gasper will play wherever allows him to get his bat in the lineup, though he prefers his natural position behind the dish.
“I’ll play anywhere that lets me hit. That’s the beauty of baseball, they find spots for you when you’re hitting,” Gasper said. “I have fun out there. It’s definitely different perspectives. Catching is a lot less about your hitting, where when you’re in the field you can get caught up on that at-bat. So that’s one thing I really love about catching is that it’s one thing and you move on. The good at bats, bad at bats, you have to move on and go make things happen for your pitching.”
Gasper is enjoying his time in Worcester, and that’s partly because he’s surrounded by a great group of people.
“[Rich Gedman] and [Doug] Clark are two of the finer hitting coaches that I’ve ever worked with,” Gasper said. “They keep me confident. They keep me upbeat.
“This is such a great group of guys,” Gasper added. “This is a pretty fantastic clubhouse to be around. Different characters and different personalities and we gel really well and it’s been really easy for me to come in here and get my work in and have fun.”
Mets 4, WooSox 2
The WooSox bats fell quiet again on Friday night as they managed five hits and stranded 10 men on base in the loss. Chase Meidroth and Matthew Lugo had the two extra-base hits for the WooSox, both doubles.
Grant Gambrell was strong in his four innings of work but did allow three walks, throwing 67 pitches with 41 going for strikes. Brad Keller took the loss, allowing three runs on one hit and three walks in three innings of work. Ryan Zeferjahn and Lucas Luetge both pitched hitless innings in relief for Worcester.
Gasper worked the count to 3-2 with two outs and a runner on in the ninth, and came within a few feet of going deep and tying it up, but instead the ball found the glove of center fielder Rhylan Thomas for the final out.
What’s Next
Cooper Criswell will make his first start since June 27 (he was in somewhat of a holding pattern this week waiting to see if the Red Sox might need him) and Bryan Mata will follow him for his first appearance at Polar Park this season. First pitch against the Syracuse Mets is at 4:05 p.m.
