WORCESTER, MA—The Red Sox player-development machine just doubled down on continuity, and like everything else in modern baseball, it’s either a masterstroke or the safest possible move disguised as momentum. Chad Tracy is back. Again. Fifth season. Same chair. Same pipeline. Same mandate: win enough, develop everyone, send the real talent up the Pike, and never complain when the roster turns over like a casino door.
This is not a sentimental decision. This is a results decision. Tracy earned it, whether you like the vibes or not.
He took over Worcester in 2022 and hasn’t had a losing season yet. Not one. That alone makes him an outlier in Triple-A chaos. He hit 300 wins in a WooSox uniform on August 31, 2025 in Durham. The record now sits at 309-285 in Worcester, with 485 career managerial wins if you count his Angels system years. That’s not a hot streak. That’s a profile.
And yet, this isn’t Pawtucket nostalgia hour. This is the Red Sox quietly saying: don’t touch what’s feeding Fenway.
Tracy is now locked in through 2026, making him one of the longest-tenured Triple-A managers in the organization’s modern history. The list he’s climbing is not short on ghosts. Joe Morgan. Buddy Bailey. Ron Johnson. Kevin Boles. Ed Nottle. These are not names you pass accidentally. You pass them by surviving years where your best players leave midseason and you’re still expected to win on Tuesday night in Scranton.
The WooSox went 76-73 in 2025. That doesn’t scream dominance. It does scream survival. That season came after back-to-back 79-win campaigns and a 75-win opener in 2022. Four straight winning seasons to open a managerial tenure. No other Red Sox Triple-A manager has done that since at least the 1930s. That’s not spin. That’s math.
Here’s the part that matters more than the standings. Tracy’s clubhouse is a revolving door and he still keeps it upright. The 2024 WooSox set Red Sox Triple-A records for transactions and players used. Two hundred eighty-one player moves. Eighty-four players in one season. Thirty-seven position players. Forty-seven pitchers. That’s not a roster. That’s a witness protection program.
And still, the system worked.
Roman Anthony went up. Marcelo Mayer went up. Connelly Early and Payton Tolle went up. Before them came Triston Casas, Jarren Duran, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Brayan Bello, Wilyer Abreu, Connor Wong, Ceddanne Rafaela, Kristian Campbell, Nick Sogard. This isn’t cherry-picking. This is the entire purpose of the job.
Tracy doesn’t just win. He exports.
The International League noticed. Baseball America noticed. His peers voted him the “Best Managerial Prospect” in the league in both 2023 and 2024. That’s not Worcester hype. That’s industry acknowledgment. Triple-A managers don’t get parades. They get promoted or replaced. Tracy has stayed because the conveyor belt keeps moving.
So yes, he’s back. And no, this isn’t about comfort. It’s about trust.
The rest of the coaching staff mostly returns with him, which tells you everything about how Boston views Worcester right now. Pitching coach Dan DeLucia is back for a third season. Hitting coach Collin Hetzler returns for year two in Worcester. Defensive coach Iggy Suarez stays on. Bullpen coach Noah Junis remains. Rich Gedman continues in his player development hitting advisor role while still working Polar Park games. The trainers are back. Strength and conditioning is back. This is an entire infrastructure vote.
DeLucia’s resume quietly jumps off the page if you care about arms. Nineteen pitchers promoted from Worcester to Boston in 2024 alone. Forty-seven pitchers used that season. That’s not a staff, that’s an assembly line. He’s worked with Dobbins, Drohan, Early, Fitts, Kelly, Murphy, Priester, Tolle, Weissert, Winckowski. He’s been in the rehab grind, the shuttle grind, the “get ready by Tuesday” grind. The Red Sox didn’t blink.
Hetzler is still paired with Gedman, which is the most modern-old-school hitting marriage you’ll find at Triple-A. Driveline background meets Worcester lifer. Data meets dirt. The Red Sox didn’t split them up. They added to them.
Johnny Reina is the new assistant hitting coach, promoted from Double-A Portland. He replaces Doug Clark and steps into a system that clearly values continuity with an edge of modern development. Reina didn’t come up through the traditional coaching pipeline. He started in sales with Pawtucket in 2018, worked at Antonelli Baseball, interned at Driveline, became a hitting trainer, then climbed back into affiliated ball. That path matters now. The Red Sox value that path now.
Reina worked with Franklin Arias, Miguel Bleis, Mikey Romero last season. That’s not accidental grooming. That’s alignment.
Brendan Connelly is gone, but not really. He’s promoted. Four seasons as WooSox development coach earned him the Boston Red Sox Assistant of Player Development role. He will not be replaced. Read that again. Not replaced. That’s not a vacancy. That’s a signal. The WooSox operation is being trusted to absorb and function without redundancy.
Rich Gedman remains the connective tissue. Ten seasons as a Red Sox Triple-A hitting coach across Pawtucket and Worcester. Longest tenure in franchise history at that level. Boston Hall of Famer. WooSox Hall of Famer. Worcester native. He’s not there for nostalgia. He’s there because he keeps producing big leaguers.
Iggy Suarez is still settling into Worcester after seven years running Greenville. He won a South Atlantic League championship in 2023 with a roster that reads like a future Fenway roll call. He knows how to manage prospects without breaking them. That’s why he’s still there.
Noah Junis returns as bullpen coach for year three. Development background. Performance centers. Family pitching DNA. This is a staff built for the modern grind, not the postcard version of Triple-A.
And here’s the quiet truth beneath all of this: Worcester has become Boston’s most important domestic asset that doesn’t wear a big-league uniform.
Polar Park opens its sixth season on March 27, 2026 against Syracuse. Opening Day. Same manager. Same staff. Same mission. Feed Fenway.
Chad Tracy lives in Ohio. He played nine pro seasons. He caught. He hit 159 home runs. He never made the majors. He learned how to manage men trying to get there anyway. His father managed in the big leagues for 11 seasons. That matters too, whether anyone wants to admit it or not.
This isn’t flashy. It’s not headline-grabbing in New York. It’s not a splash. It’s a foundation move. The Red Sox looked at the most volatile level of their system and said: don’t touch it.
In a sport addicted to churn, that’s the loudest statement of all.