Mickey Gasper credits Red Sox top prospects for Portland clubhouse culture: 'It made the transition into organization a lot easier'
Mickey Gasper is a proud graduate of Merrimack High School in Merrimack, New Hampshire, but he wanted to make it known that he “was born in New Jersey, so the Gaspers were Yankees fans growing up.” Even when moving to New England at the age of 5, Gasper admitted that he “tried to be a Red Sox fan” so he could be like everyone else in the area.
Fan affiliation aside, Gasper is now 28 years old and enjoying a career season at the plate in the Red Sox system. After being selected in the Minor League portion of the Rule 5 Draft, Gasper got off to a hot start for Double-A Portland.
“It was about trusting my routine and doing what I know works for me and gets me feeling good for game time.” Gasper said of his hot start to 2024. “Last year was the first time I had played away from home in sometime because I was playing in Somerset, which was close to home. I was hitting off the tee every morning with my Dad. I got away from that routine when I got to Scranton and started to struggle a little bit. When I went back to Somerset later in the year, I got more comfortable. When I got to the Red Sox, they just told me to be me. I brought my double tee along that I have had since I was like 12 years old and hit on it every single day.”
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Gasper was assigned to Double-A Portland, which if you know anything about the state of the Red Sox farm system right now, is where the top talent in the system is grouped up at the moment. At 28, Gasper was the oldest guy in the clubhouse but left there crediting two of the youngest guys in the room for setting the culture in the clubhouse.
“It was such a good group of guys to be around in Portland.” Gasper said. “It made the transition a hell of a lot easier. Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer are two of the better personalities that I have ever been around in the game of baseball. For as good of prospects and players that they are, they are just as good of people. That clubhouse was very fun, and it was easy to stay loose every single day and go out and play hard.”
While showing love for both Anthony and Mayer, Gasper could not forget the impact that another top prospect in Portland had on him.
“It started in the spring as we were a close bunch as catchers.” Gasper said. “It is a really good environment that the catchers bring every day and compete. I found myself talking about the game more with Kyle Teel. When you are vocalizing aspects of the game, you start thinking a little more. I just started being more into the games and watching things that I normally didn’t watch because I was trying to help some guys out.”
After arriving in Double-A in 2021, Gasper essentially spent almost three years at the level with a brief stint in Triple-A last year. After his hot start this year, he hopes this promotion is a permanent one.
“It was exciting.” Gasper added. “I feel like I have a lot to prove at this level after last year when I don’t think I played to my capabilities in Scranton. As bittersweet as it was to leave those guys in Portland, I was really excited for this opportunity to get back up here and give it everything I got.”
