WooSox catcher Nathan Hickey crushes his first Triple-A homer; club takes series against Lehigh Valley
The WooSox have been getting offense from all over their lineup since the season began on Friday night against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.
New WooSox catcher Nathan Hickey added some pop on Sunday afternoon, collecting his first Triple-A homer in the team’s 6-2 victory over the IronPigs.
Hickey’s homer came in the top of the fourth inning. After a one-out double from Dalton Guthrie, Nick Sogard singled to left to bring him home and put the WooSox up 3-2. Hickey would follow and mash his first homer, a two-run blast to dead center to extend the lead.
The Jacksonville native sent the ball 435 feet and had an exit velocity of 109.7 mph.
Hickey has pop in his bat; he hit 19 homers last season, 15 of them as a member of the Portland Sea Dogs. His SoxProsepcts.com scouting report lists the catcher as having “plus raw power” and offers the “potential for above-average game power.”
The former fifth-round pick out of Florida found out he was going to be assigned to Triple-A Worcester right as camp closed down in Fort Myers. The 24-year-old drove 22 hours up from his home in Jacksonville before reporting to WooSox media day last Wednesday.
Of the three catchers on the WooSox roster, Hickey will be third in line for playing time behind the dish. Worcester has veterans Tyler Heineman and Mark Kolozsvary to handle the majority of the duties, with Hickey sprinkled in to give them rest. Fans can expect to see Hickey DH and play a good chunk of first base this coming season.
"Hickey, we’ve talked about playing some first base as well,” said Red Sox director of player development Brian Abraham while on the To the Show We Go podcast in late January. “We’d like to give him an opportunity to expose his bat in the lineup.”
A plus about minor league play is that players don’t play every day like they would in the big leagues. Hickey can get some game reps behind the plate while also developing a skill at first base. If his bat continues to develop and he offers the raw power he has thus far, his bat could get him to the bigs with some positional versatility under his belt.
