WORCESTER—As advanced as analytics are in baseball, there is no way to put numbers on success in the minor leagues.
The minors are not all about wins and losses. They are mostly about developing players for the major leagues, but that is not their entire mission since there has to be a reason for fans to buy tickets.
How many tickets they buy is also part of the success equation.
The 2025 Worcester Red Sox won more games than they lost. They sent a lot of players to the Sox in Boston. They sold a lot of tickets. That all creates a very strong case to call the year a success.
Seven players who were with the WooSox joined Boston at some point in the season. That list included Kristian Campbell, Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Hunter Dobbins, Jhostynxon Garcia, Payton Tolle and Connelly Early.
Some 12 players who were with the WooSox for more than a rehab stint have made significant contributions to Boston’s drive for a playoff spot. That includes experienced players such as Nick Sogard, Abraham Toro, Nate Eaton, Cooper Criswell, David Hamilton and Zack Kelly.
It made for an interesting September for Worcester manager Chad Tracy, who finished his fourth season with the WooSox.
“If (Boston) gets to the post-season with the amount of talent that’s come through here,” he said, “it would be a pretty cool. For them to get there knowing how much our minor league players have contributed — there have been a lot of impactful players who arrived this year, guys who can be middle-of-the-order type guys in the future.”
Tracy was part of the WooSox on-field success as they finished 76-73. He was 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 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.
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.
Worcester’s average crowd of 6,901 was sixth in minor league baseball overall and fifth in Triple-A. In five years the WooSox have drawn 2,349,465 fans to Polar Park.
The season featured an abundance of interesting players.
Rookie righty Tyler Uberstine finished with a 6-4 record. He was 4-1 in his last five starts, 5-1 after Aug. 6. Originally, he didn’t figure much in the WooSox plans.
“He came here in May as a fill-in,” Tracy said. “We were running out of starters so they figured, send Uberstine, he throws strikes. I think he was told he’d make a start or two, the he became arguably one of our best starting pitchers and emerged as another big-league starter option.”
Philip Sikes played all three outfield positions as well as Designated Hitter. He pinch hit, pinch ran, was a defensive replacement and pitched in four games. Sikes hit six home runs and allowed one.
Nathan Hickey set a franchise record by playing in 128 games. That included 72 at first base where he made one error. He hit 17 home runs giving him 30 in a Worcester uniform, fifth-most in franchise history.
Garcia led the team in home runs with 18, the second-most ever for a WooSox rookie behind Wilyer Abreu’s 22 in 2023. Garcia was batting .303 with 17 home runs when called up to Boston on Aug. 20. He hit .113 with one homer after being returned to Worcester.
Mikey Romero, up from Portland late in the season, hit just .232 but it felt like .332. He had 15 doubles and 9 home runs among his 41 hits. Only two of those nine home runs were solo shots. He led the team in 3-run homers with four, although Mayer had a trio of 3-run homers and one grand slam.
Quinn Priester was 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA for Worcester and was eventually traded to the Brewers where he has since compiled a 13-2 record. Ryan Noda played for six different teams in 2025 including the White Sox and Orioles. He got into 13 games here during which the WooSox were 10-3. He hit .378 with three home runs and 13 RBIs.
Shane Drohan moved back to the front of the prospect line after missing 15 weeks with arm trouble. He finished the year with a 5-1 record and 2.27 ERA. Drohan struck out 67 in 47 2/3 innings.
Kristian Campbell started the year in Boston, got a big contract, then slumped. He was assigned to Worcester and slumped some more. At one point he was hitting just .186, then went on a 15-game hitting streak but still finished the year hitting only .273.
Then there is the interesting case of Karson Simas, a 25th round draft pick in 2019. He has spent six years in the minors including parts of 2024 and 2025 in Worcester. Simas hit .328 in 19 games this year and is batting .304 overall in Triple-A. At the lower levels, Simas has 213 hits in 999 at bats for a .213 average.
Buddy Bailey has died at age 68. Bailey had two separate stints managing the Pawtucket Red Sox from 1993 to 2004 totaling 99 games. That is second on Boston’s all-time list for Triple-A managers. His 502 wins are second.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
