Worcester Red Sox now can benefit from outfielder Daniel Palka's power
WORCESTER — This was a marriage that had a very long engagement.
After spending two years annihilating Worcester Red Sox pitching, outfielder Daniel Palka is on the roster. He hammered the WooSox in 2021 with Rochester and did the same last season in Syracuse. Palka’s nine career homers off WooSox pitching are tied with Luis Garcia for the most by an opposing batter.
Palka was a big reason Syracuse won last year’s season series with Worcester, 16-11, so just having him in a WooSox uniform and not some other team in the International League is a plus for Worcester.
He is 31, a native of South Carolina who played three years at Georgia Tech and two summers for Wareham in the Cape Cod League. Palka reached the majors in 2018 with the White Sox and had an impressive debut season, batting .240 with 27 homers and 67 RBIs.
He finished fifth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting.
Palka played briefly for the White Sox again in 2019 but has not been in the major leagues since. Along the way in the minors, he has hit 98 Triple-A home runs.
Worcester will be Palka’s fourth Triple-A team. It is a place where, if he is in the minors and the not majors, he has been looking forward to playing at.
“For the past couple of years,” he said, “I’ve been telling people that Worcester puts on a show. The way they run the game — it seems like you’re in the big leagues. It is very enjoyable playing here, so when they called, I was excited at the opportunity.”
Palka drew some interest during the winter but said, in general, it was a slow offseason for him.
“I had some people calling, and a couple of offers that got pulled late,” he said, “then (Boston) came in at the perfect time. I had kind of been bugging Red Sox people in the offseasons, and I told (Rich Gedman), like for the last six years I’d seen him, ‘Hey, can you get me over there?’
"So I’m glad this finally worked out.”
Gedman diplomatically declined to corroborate Palka’s entire story.
“It might be true,” Gedman said, “but I can’t say that it is. That would be ... what’s the word … tampering. Yeah, that would be tampering.”
No matter, Gedman is happy to have Palka on his team.
“You can see why you would like him,” Gedman said. “He hits big homers. He’s a big, strong guy, and any time he comes up to the plate, he’s a threat. He’s a sociable guy, and he’s confident in his ability.”
Two years into the life of Polar Park, it is not entirely clear if the place is a left-handed hitter’s paradise. A lot depends on the rosters. A lot depends on the weather.
Palka does not think it matters.
“In the long run,” he said, “it’s irrelevant to me. I don’t really care what park it is.”
Gedman agrees with that, and on the record.
“I don’t know how many homers he’ll hit,” Gedman said, “but he will hit home runs wherever he plays. The only problem is — that can’t be all he thinks about. We’d love to have him be a .275, .280 hitter with 25 homers, but hopefully he’s not around for that long.”
Palka recognizes that the Sox signed him as a depth guy. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Rob Refsnyder was 31 when he opened last season with the WooSox. Refsnyder went on to become a big part of the roster in Boston and is still there on Opening Day this year.
Manager Chad Tracy only goes back the one season with Palka, but the veteran made an impression.
“I don’t know exactly what the numbers say,” Tracy recalled, “but I do remember him hitting balls over the fence against us. That I do remember.”
Maybe Palka’s arrival in Worcester was pre-ordained by fate. Not only has he hit many home runs against the WooSox, but in November 2015, the Diamondbacks traded Palka to the Twins. The swap was for catcher Chris Herrmann, who six years later would hit the first home run in Worcester Red Sox history.
—Contact Bill Ballou at sports@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillBallouTG.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: It's nice now that Daniel Palka is on side of Worcester Red Sox
