Former Sea Dogs manager tells story of his surprise call-up to Red Sox
Red Sox interim third base coach Chad Epperson, left, looks toward the dugout after Ceddanne Rafaela, right, was tagged out at third base during a game against the Orioles on April 26. Epperson was promoted from the Sea Dogs manager to Red Sox interim third base coach on April 25. (Stephanie Scarborough/Associated Press)
PORTLAND — Here was Chad Epperson, watching a Portland Sea Dogs game with absolutely no hand in the outcome. For the first time in years, he wasn’t making decisions in the dugout, the third base coach’s box or the manager’s office. Epperson was sitting in the last row of section 106 at Delta Dental Park at Hadlock Field, right behind home plate, simply enjoying a baseball game.
Last Thursday was an off day for the Boston Red Sox, for whom Epperson has served as third base coach since that weird weekend in late April when the Red Sox upended the on-field leadership.
It was Epperson’s — known respectfully around the ballpark as Eppy — first visit to Portland since April 25, the day his career and life changed with one phone call.
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Eppy was working in his office after the game, a 4-3 win over the Hartford Yard Goats decided when prized prospect Franklin Arias smashed a pinch-hit, opposite-field walkoff home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. His cellphone rang with a call from Craig Breslow, the Red Sox’s chief baseball officer.
“I’m thinking it’s about Arias, because you know, he was on that tear. (Breslow) told me the news, and it was just hustle, hustle,” Eppy said.
The news, of course, was that the team had just fired manager Alex Cora and a handful of his coaches. Eppy was getting the news he had given to so many players over his four-plus years as Portland’s manager. He was getting promoted.
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Not to Triple-A Worcester. To Boston. To the majors.
Breslow wanted him to be the Red Sox third base coach. A private jet would be waiting at the Portland International Jetport soon to pick Eppy up. It would stop in Worcester to pick up Chad Tracy, the team’s interim manager, and Collin Hetzler, the interim hitting coach.
They had to get to Baltimore. The Sox had a game to play there Sunday afternoon. They landed at around 1 a.m. First pitch was at 1:35 that afternoon.
Chad Epperson was the Portland Sea Dogs manager from 2022 until April and is the franchise’s all-time leader in wins. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
It happened fast, and there was confusion. It helped that both Eppy and Tracy had managed a lot of the players as they made their way through Boston’s minor league system. That didn’t make the loss of Cora easier for the team, but it helped smooth what could have been a turbulent transition.
“It’s just that built-in trust, that built-in relationship’s already there. They know what I’m about. They know what Tracy’s about,” Eppy said. “That kind of helped a little bit. Definitely a unique situation.”
Eppy was helping the 2026 Red Sox win long before he was coaching third base for the team.
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He became manager of the Sea Dogs in 2022, and last season became the club’s leader in wins. Glance at the Red Sox roster, and you’ll see a lot of players whom he helped develop in Double-A, the proving ground in professional baseball. Ceddanne Rafaela blossomed in Portland under his leadership. So did Payton Tolle, in the short time he was a Sea Dog last summer. Wilyer Abreu played for Eppy in Portland. Nick Sogard did, too.
Coming back to Portland for the first time since changing jobs in April was a chance for Eppy to catch up with some of the players he had to leave in a hurry. Some, like Arias, moved on to Worcester. Others were promoted to Portland from Greenville after he left. Still, it was good to see some familiar faces, to just watch them play ball.
Like the players, coaches are looking to get that call.
“You can manage for as many years as I’ve done, and I never thought my first big league gig would be as manager. You never know, and third base is where they wanted me to be,” Eppy said. “I’ve always enjoyed coaching third base, so it’s one of those where you get to do it at the apex of the sport. I’m blessed and fortunate to be able to do it.”
After a bumpy restart under the new coaching staff, the Red Sox caught fire and vaulted themselves into the playoff race. Eppy was right in the middle of it, waving so many baserunners home he’s lucky he didn’t tear his rotator cuff.
“I don’t think anybody in our clubhouse thought we were as bad as we were. And I get that it was not pretty. These guys have stayed the course. Nothing’s changed, really,” he said. “You can argue that we’ve done more small ball, which is great. Guys are competing a little more with two strikes, but pitching and defense was always there.
“We always knew the identity. We just had to figure out that individual part of the identity. How it was going to come to the surface. Guys bought in, and the next thing you know, we’re reeling off a few (wins) here. You look up, and it’s ‘Holy (crap), that’s 15 in a row.'”
As long as they don’t fall apart like wet cardboard, the Red Sox are going to the playoffs. Eppy helped make that happen. First, in Portland, developing the players. Now, in Boston, coaching them up.
How did it feel to be back at Hadlock? Bittersweet, he said, but that’s baseball.
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Tagged: boston red sox, portland sea dogs, Sports Columns, travis lazarczyk
Travis Lazarczyk has covered sports for the Portland Press Herald since 2021. A Vermont native, he graduated from the University of Maine in 1995 with a BA in English. After a few years working as a sports. More by Travis Lazarczyk
