WORCESTER — Chad Tracy has gotten the chance to deliver a lot of special news over his three years as manager of the WooSox.
The most recent promotion is one of the most emotional yet.
“That is one that I’ve been waiting for for quite a while,” Tracy said on Wednesday after WooSox infielder Nick Sogard was called up to Boston. “He means a lot to all of us. Not just because we think he’s a great player, which he is, but he’s turned into one of the leaders of our team from the scrawny little kid with long hair that showed up two and a half years ago.”
Sogard was one of the longest-tenured members of the WooSox, earning a promotion to Worcester in July of 2022. Since then, he’s stayed put on the WooSox’ roster, and become an integral member of the lineup and clubhouse.
“From spraying little soft liners to left to hitting homers from both sides of the plate, he’s bigger, faster, stronger, and became one of our elder statesmen in the locker room,” Tracy said.
Tracy got the call from Director of Player Development Brian Abraham on Wednesday morning giving him the news.
“I immediately was like, ‘are you serious?!’ I was like feeling like I got called up, I was excited,” Tracy said. “So I rushed over here, made sure [bench coach Jose Flores] was here. I wanted to get it set up so we could film it for him. I made something up, said ‘can you get here a little early? We need to talk to you about some defensive stuff.’ And got him in and told him.”
Tracy tried to draw out the suspense before asking him if he could play second base in the big leagues.
“It’s Sogie, he’s so calm, not deterred,” Tracy said. “I think it looked more like this giant sigh of relief, like I’m finally going to be a major league player.”
Sogard put up solid production through his two and a half years in Triple A, slashing .269/.371/.396 over 266 games with the WooSox. This year, the power has shown up for Sogard, who belted 12 home runs in 89 games this year and slugged .439.
“[He came to us] a scrawny, undersized kid with long hair from California who shows up in 2022,” Tracy said. “The more we watched him it was like, ‘this guy’s a pretty good player, if we could get him stronger.’
“So we pounded on him at the end of ’22 and then again in ’23 about how important the weight room piece is going to be for him to be able to impact the ball more. Then it showed up in spring training this year, he hit three or four home runs, the ball’s coming off the bat a little bit differently and it showed up here.”
Throughout his time with the WooSox, what stuck out the most to Tracy was how complete Sogard is as a player.
“It was like this guy understands the game, he knows situations, he puts the ball in play, he doesn’t swing at balls, he swings at strikes,” Tracy said. “All the little things you’re looking for in a really good player were there, we just needed to get him stronger. He did all those things and watching him grow, not just as a player but watching him get bigger and mature physically was fun to watch.”
Notes
– At 5 p.m. in Tracy’s routine meeting with the media on Tuesday, all was quiet on the trade front. There was nothing for Tracy to do but wait for a phone call.
That call came about six minutes before the trade deadline at 6 p.m. and less than an hour before first pitch against the Bisons. With Niko Kavadas, Matthew Lugo and Ryan Zeferjahn dealt to the Angels for reliever Luis Garcia. That forced Tracy to change up his lineup as Lugo was in right and Kavadas at first.
The moves worked out all right for the WooSox – Hickey homered in his first at-bat and Contreras reached base four times.
“I was teasing saying ‘that’s just great managing,’” Tracy said.
The moves resulted in some tough losses for the WooSox coaching staff, though.
“There’s nothing else to say other than it’s bittersweet, it’s sad because we view them as our kids,” Tracy said. “But then the other half is maybe they’re moving on to an opportunity that’s more of a lane for them to maybe arrive at the big leagues quicker.”
– Quinn Priester will make his debut in the Red Sox organization likely on Sunday in the series finale with the Bisons.
What’s Next
The WooSox were postponed on Wednesday night due to inclement weather. They’ll play a doubleheader on Thursday with first pitch of the first game scheduled for 12:15 p.m.
