WORCESTER—One of the differences between baseball and fishing is the terminology.
Nobody wants to catch throwback fish. They are either too short or too skinny. Baseball, though, has a history of welcoming throwback players. This year’s WooSox has one in rookie infielder Chase Meidroth, who does what hardly anybody does these days.
Meidroth walks more than he strikes out, and by a lot. So far, those numbers are 65 walks, 38 strikeouts in 74 games played. Meidroth is on a pace — a lot can happen to baseball rosters, especially at the trade deadline — to be the first Red Sox’ Triple-A batter to walk more than 100 times in a season since Rick Miller did it for Louisville in 1971.
Miller had 106 bases on balls that season and went on to play 1,482 major league games.
“His knowledge of the strike zone is pretty spectacular,” said manager Chad Tracy.
That is a major reason why Meidroth has been the most constant member of Worcester’s batting order. He began the year batting second, led off for the first time on April 12 and has led off every game he has been in the starting lineup since April 19.
Meidroth turns 23 on July 23 and was the youngest player on Worcester’s opening day roster. He is the second-youngest now to Nick Yorke. Knowledge of the strike zone often comes with experience, but Meidroth seems to have been born with it.
“There is definitely a huge piece of it that’s instinctive,” Red Sox Farm Director Brian Abraham said. “There is training. There is work to be done in the cages, and it can be improved on. Compared to other areas that are physically related it is probably one of the hardest things to train.
“If you have a player who makes good swing decisions it can be a building block.”
The only Worcester Triple-A player who played more than half the schedule to have more walks than strikeouts is Niko Goodrum last season at 66-60. Going back further in time, the last PawSox player with more walks than strikeouts was Dustin Pedroia in 2006 at 48-27.
Which brings up another point.
Meidroth grew up in sunny Southern California and has an equally sunny disposition. He was a Dodgers fan and played college baseball in San Diego so his allegiances are out that way. Meidroth did spend the summer of 2022 playing for Yarmouth-Dennis in the Cape League.
However, as West Coast as he has been, Meidroth has already established a Boston connection. Asked who his favorite player was growing up, Meidroth was quick to answer, “Justin Turner,” then almost as quick to add, “and Dustin Pedroia, too.”
Current Boston Red Sox broadcaster Kevin Youkilis was known as the “Greek God of Walks” as a minor leaguer, but in 121 Triple-A games he struck out 84 times and walked 77. In the early 1990s, the PawSox had a Polish God of Walks in Mike Twardoski, who walked 210 times while there and struck out just 158.
The list of more walks than strikeouts in Red Sox Triple-A includes some memorable names like Mookie Betts (63-58), Jody Reed (100-41), Mike Greenwell (81-45), Marty Barrett (147-53) and Wade Boggs (153-66).
Meidroth fits into the throwback vision of top-of-the order batters like Betts, Reed and Barrett. That job description has evolved and the Sox would like to see Meidroth evolve as well.
“He definitely gets on base a lot,” Abraham said. “The challenge for him, and for us as a development group, is for him to impact the baseball. He already does that to an extent but to get from being a good player to a great player that’s something he’s going to have to focus on.
“But in terms of strike zone awareness, he is near the top of the organization and near the top in all of baseball.”
A recurring theme in pro sports is that the team that scores first usually wins. In baseball it starts with the top of the order getting on base. Meidroth is a good baserunner but not a flash. However, his 10 steals are second on the team. Meidroth’s three home runs are something the Sox hope he improves on.
“He finds his way to first base,” Tracy said, “and you want your leadoff guy to set the tone of the game. As (leadoff) has evolved this season, as I watched Chase, watched how many pitches he sees — eight, nine, ten pitches — I figured that this is a heckuva guy to lead off a game with.”
Baseball has always been a mix of old-school and new-school. Today’s players are usually hybrids. Meidroth is one of those and the Red Sox see a lot of upside in what he can bring to a batting order.
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
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