So, where the heck is this guy from?
“It’s funny,” Tracy said. “People ask me that, and I oftentimes don’t know how to answer.”
The reality is Tracy is kind of from everywhere, having lived the life of a baseball nomad, a long road that has brought him now to Boston and, finally, to the major leagues.
Tracy, 40, suddenly holds the job he has dreamed of having for a quarter-century — yes, since he was a teenager.
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He was 15 when Jim took the helm of the Dodgers, old enough to appreciate the game through his dad’s managerial eyes.
“I always wanted to do it,” Tracy said Tuesday in an interview with the Globe. “The conversations we would have after games intrigued me a lot. In my head, I was like, I really think I want to try to manage and work my way up as a manager after I’m done playing.”
Chad Tracy (right) made his MLB managerial debut on Sunday in Baltimore.Jamie Sabau/Getty
He gets it all the time: No, he is not that Chad Tracy, of the 2000s Diamondbacks.
But this Chad Tracy did play for much of his life. He was a standout catcher at Pepperdine University and went to the Rangers in the third round of the draft in 2006.
For parts of four seasons, he played in Triple-A, agonizingly close to the majors. The call never came. Shoulder surgeries forced him out from behind the plate to mostly first base. Although he still could hit, that was about it.
After he suited up for the York (Pa.) Revolution of the independent Atlantic League in 2014, life was getting real.
“My wife is pregnant. My shoulder is done,” Tracy recalled. “You’re pushing 30, you got no shoulder left, and you have a bat — you can still hit. But, realistically, what are the odds this happens? The odds were very low.”
That offseason, for a second year in a row, his former Rangers bosses reached out. They were helping run the Angels, and they had an opening at manager for the Burlington Bees, their low Single-A affiliate.
They wanted Tracy, if Tracy was ready to give up playing.
“I’m ready to do this,” he said. “I need to move on.”
In 2015, for the first time, Chad Tracy was a manager.
The Bees, who no longer exist as a professional team, were based in Burlington, Iowa. Tracy’s roster was weirdly loaded: Trevor Gretzky, son of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky; Sean Newcomb, noted Middleborough, Mass., native (and briefly a member of the 2025 Red Sox); and Taylor Ward, the Orioles’ leadoff hitter Sunday in Tracy’s debut.
At Community Field, built in 1947, the Bees drew fewer than 1,000 fans per game.
“Uh, not even 200 fans a game,” Tracy said with a scoff-laugh. “I had a blast. It’s your first year. There’s a lot of nerves that come with that. OK, it’s a different thing. So you’re not playing, but you’re now responsible.”
Tracy spent a year with the Bees, then moved up to high Single-A Inland Empire for two seasons.
What stuck out to Bobby Scales, former Angels farm director: After routine games in which the result didn’t really matter — such are the lower minor leagues — Tracy wanted to talk through certain in-game situations and how he would approach them in a game of significance.
That was unusual for a person in his position. But it was how his brain worked.
“Some people just stick out and they’re different, and Trace was one of those guys,” Scales said. “You knew it was going to be a long career for him in the game.”
Tracy later moved into a field coordinator role, and he spent seven years with the Angels — under three general managers and three managers, a level of survival that often is indicative of respect and ability.
But the Angels let him go after 2021, triggering a minor existential dilemma. He wondered: Did people around baseball know who he was? What did they think of him? Would he even get another job?
When the phone started ringing, Tracy found that he had options, including getting back in uniform.
“I felt the pull,” Tracy said.
Beginning in 2022, Tracy managed the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox for 618 games over four-plus seasons. As he helped shape all who have come through the farm system recently, he built a reputation for strong communication, teaching, and people skills.
Chad Tracy became Worcester Red Sox manager in 2022.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
“This is his first taste at the big league level, but he handles big leaguers all the time,” said Roman Anthony, who credited Tracy with showing him finer points of playing the outfield. “You can kind of raw talent your way up to Triple-A. That’s where you really got to clean up on those [details] that you learn happen very fast at this level. He does a great job of covering everything.”
Marcelo Mayer said: “He holds players accountable. He’s not scared to have a voice and talk to us about things we’re doing good, about things we’re not doing good.”
And Dr. Charles Steinberg, WooSox president: “He is an ideal baseball man. He is positive, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, quick-minded, a student of the game, a teacher of the game, from a great baseball family, and part of a great family beyond baseball.”
Tracy loved his job. He lived behind Polar Park, making for a short commute and long days, and his young children were “happy fixtures” in the summer months, Steinberg said.
At the end of each of the past few seasons, Steinberg would say so long to Tracy — maybe for good, he figured. It wouldn’t have surprised him if Tracy got scooped up for a major league role by somebody, so if this was it, thanks for everything.
That chance hadn’t come. This past winter, entering Tracy’s fifth season in Worcester and 21st in the minors, he had a heart-to-heart with Brian Abraham, senior director of player development. The pair had become close friends. Tracy was open about his hope to take the next step.
“He could be a Triple-A manager with his eyes closed, but that has never led him to shying away from asking questions and poking holes in the way we do things,” Abraham said.
Helping keep Tracy’s head straight was Jim Tracy, who managed 11 seasons in the majors. That included taking over the 2009 Rockies on an interim basis in late May and leading them to the playoffs.
“He prepared for this. Whether [the majors] was going to happen or not, you don’t worry about that, I always told him,” Jim Tracy said, channeling his approach from the 1990s.
Opportunity arose at a wildly unexpected moment, in the fourth inning of Worcester’s game Saturday. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told Tracy by telephone that he was firing Alex Cora and wanted Tracy to take over.
“In a matter of five hours, my life changed,” he said.
Through one lens, Tracy is a very modern manager: on the young side, fluent in analytics, in tune with players’ feelings.
Through another, Tracy is old school: climbed his way through the minors, receiving a chance that so many of his deserving International League peers haven’t.
Soon, his wife, Emily, and their kids, 11-year-old Avery and 7-year-old Austin, will join him, just as the Tracy brothers did with Jim decades ago. Out of nowhere, he is where he always wanted to be.
Chad Tracy is in charge in the dugout as the Red Sox try to save their season.
“Everybody who plays for him loves him,” Mayer said. “I’m super excited for him to show what I know he has, and for the players, the fans, everybody to love him.”
Interim manager Chad Tracy (left) has Chad Epperson at his side as third base coach in the big leagues.Jamie Sabau/Getty
Tim Healey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @timbhealey.
