Former Merrimack High, Bryant College and Nashua Silver Knight standout Mickey Gasper has a lot to smile about as he was called up to the Boston Red Sox from Triple A Worcester on Monday. (X photo)

Nashua Silver Knights general manager Cam Cook remembers the first day when he signed with the team as a player midway through the 2016 season, and was in the dugout watching his new teammate, Mickey Gasper, hit.

“That team was stacked and I was like a deer in the headlights, didn’t know what to expect, and he hit two home runs in like five innings, and I think from both sides of the plate,” Cook said. “I was thinking, ‘I’ll never be able to play on this team. We’re at two different levels.'”

As of Monday, the team Gasper now plays for is the Boston Red Sox.

His lifelong dream has come true, as the former Merrimack High School, Bryant University and Silver Knight standout was called up Monday by Red Sox and was in the dugout at Fenway Park for last night’s game against the Texas Rangers.

He wasn’t in the starting lineup, but as a pinch-hitter worked a walk to load the bases in the bottom of the 10th before Rob Refsnyder lined a game winning hit for a 5-4 Boston win.

Refsnyder said everyone thought Gasper was going to be the hero.

“It was a real gutsy at-bat, he laid off some really good pitches,” Refsnyder said in a postgame interview on ESPN. “Kudos to Mickey, that’s a great job.”

He is the second Silver Knight to make the Majors, the first being former Giant Chris Shaw, who played with Nashua in 2012.

Gasper, 28, a catcher-infielder-DH who was drafted in the 27th round by the New York Yankees in the 2018 MLB draft, was a Minor League Rule 5 Draft selection off the Yankee minor league rosters last December after six years in the Yankees organization. Ironically, Gasper is a New Jersey native who grew up a Yankee fan. But after being plucked by the Red Sox, he thought of when he’d go out to Wilton to work with late local hitting guru Bob Caswell, “and him having a Red Sox hat on.”

And he also worked with former Sox minor leaguer and current regional coach Steve Lomasney and former Nashua Pride catcher and Red Sox Double A manager Chad Epperson before playing for Epperson the first few months of this season.

“Red Sox Nation,” Gasper said back in December, “has been good to me in my career as I was developing. There’s a lot of things I hold close to my heart that were Red Sox people. So I’m looking to make them proud.”

His career this season has taken off in incredible fashion, especially after he was promoted to Triple A Worcester on June 4 from Double A Portland (Me.) In 40 games with the Worcester Red Sox, Gasper hit an incredible .401 (55 for 137) with a 1.017 OPS, 12 doubles, eight home runs and 32 RBIs.

Ironically, he was named International League Player of the Week on Monday after hitting .579 (11 for 19) in five games from August 6-10. Overall, between Worcester and Portland, Gasper was hitting a combined .349 with 12 homers and 58 RBIs. And, he leads all minor leaguers in on base percentage (OBP) at .458. Amazing.

At Portland in 44 games to begin the season he hit .282/.403/458 with 13 doubles, four homers, 22 RBIs and 28 runs scored, plus 26 walks.

“I was talking with a couple of guys from the 2017 Silver Knights team the other day, and we were saying, ‘He’s got to be called up.’,” Cook said.

A month into his time at Worcester, Gasper told WJAR-TV of Providence “I’ve just been trusting myself, believing in myself and the work that it takes for me to be ready to play the game and be confident in the box. I attribute it to hard work and a bunch of coaches that are willing to work with me.”

Gasper’s callup was part of a bevvy of roster moves made by the Red Sox yesterday. Coming up with him from Worcester were pitchers Bailey Horn and Chase Shugart.

But the two moves that may have helped open up a spot for him on Boston’s active roster was the two-game suspension of outfielder Jarren Duran for yelling a homophobic slur at a fan at Fenway on Sunday, and infielder/outfielder Jamie Westbrook being designated for assignment. Also, outfielder Tyler O’Neill is on the injured list with a leg infection, so the Sox depth is being tested. Gasper, between Portland and Worcester, made 35 starts at catcher, 30 at first base, 13 as the DH, and three at second base.

“He earned it,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, according to Masslive.com “Tha at-bats, from everything I hear, have been amazing. Not too much swing-and-miss, not too many chases. He’s versatile. He can catch, he can play second, he can play first. Just one of those that, with where we’re at it made sense to get him here. We’ll see what happens in the upcoming days.”

Gasper wasn’t starting as Connor Wong was catching, Nick Sogard was at second, Masataka Yoshida was the DH and Dom Smith was at first. Ironically, according to a posting on X by Boston Herald writer Gabrielle Starr, Gasper showed up in Fenway dressed to the nines.

“You should’ve seen him when he walked in,” Cora said. “I’ve never seen a callup as dressed up as he was. It was like, sports coat and all that. Like ‘Where were you?’ He’s like, ‘No, at the apartment.’ I was like, ‘Wow, good for you.'”

In Gasper’s only year with the Silver Knights, he was named the FCBL’s Offensive Player of the Year. But no one could have expected this, as his best season in the Yankees system came in 2021 when he hit .318 with three teams. Last year, primarily with Double A Somerset after starting the year at Scranton Wilkes-Barre, Gasper hit. 246 with seven homers and 28 RBIs in 74 games. Overall he hit .258 during his Yankee minor league tenure.

He hasn’t resembled that hitter at all this year, but one infinitely better.

“This,” Cook said, “is who he is. He’s an unbelievable hitter …

“He’s living The Dream.”