Former Silver Knight and Merrimack High School standout Mickey Gasper is trading in his Yankee Pinstripes for Red Sox after Boston selected him in the Rule 5 Minor League Draft on Wednesday at Baseball's Winter Meetings in Nashville. (File photo)

Mickey Gasper was hitting in the cage down in Tampa, Fla.when he picked up his phone to change the music.

Instead, a message was playing a different tune – one of change.

Gasper, the former Nashua Silver Knight, Bryant University and Merrimack High School standout, is the latest member of the Yankees organization to switch to the Boston Red Sox. He found out he was plucked by the Sox in the Minor League portion of the MLB Rule 5 Draft.

“I saw a bunch of messages,” the catcher-infielder said. “One of them was from Tyson Blaser, a catching coordinator with the Red Sox now who was one of my coaches with the Yankees. I was like ‘Tyson Blaser, what the heck is he calling me for?’ And he filled me in.”

The selection doesn’t have the same implications as in the Major League portion of the Rule 5 Draft, where a player has to stay on the selecting team’s Major League roster the entire season or be offered back to his original team. In the Minor League or Triple A Rule 5 Draft, Gasper can play at any level in the organization and not have to be offered back.

Regardless, the change, he feels, will do him good. He hit . 258 with 36 homers and 149 RBIs and an OPS of .801 in five minor league seasons with the Yankees. He started last year at Triple A Scranton he hit .191 in 22 games before being sent back down to Double A Somerset, where he hit .269 with six homers, 24 RBIs and an OPS of .811.

“I think a change of scenery, I look back through my career and it’s helped me,” Gasper said. “In 2019, I was struggling in Charleston, the Yankees moved me to Tampa, and I started hitting again. It’s helped me throughout my career.”

A lot went through Gasper’s mind yesterday after hearing the news. He grew up before moving to Merrimack in New Jersey as a Yankee fan, and was thrilled to be part of that organization. But he also thought of when he’d go out to Wilton to work the 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.

“Red Sox Nation,” Gasper said, “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.”

Gasper is not on the Red Sox 40-man roster and he’s not sure what the organization has in store for him.

“I’m not sure what spring training will entail,” he said. “I know guys I know that have been invited to big league spring training after being picked up in the Minor League Rule 5 and some that were not. Right now it’s up in the air. I’m sure I’ll find out a few more things in the next few weeks and probably by the end of January, middle of January, and go from there.”

Last year, Gasper felt he rebounded well at Somerset after a rough start in Scranton.

“I felt great about Somerset, I faced some adversity and I responded,” he said. “Triple A was a little bit of a punch in the face, but I learned from it. I learned I need to be myself and be true to what makes me successful. I just think you’ve got to believe in your process and your approach to the game because it works.”

The switch of organizations, Gasper said, “is a great feeling to know that somebody sees your game, and appreciates your game and wants you on their club. I didn’t think my sails were drained or anything like that. I felt confident as ever going into this year, but that little extra kick, that little extra ‘Wow, somebody likes what I do’ is a good feeling for sure.”

What Gasper does is hit – that’s what he did with the Silver Knights when he was the Futures League’s Player of the Year in 2016 while playing his college career at Bryant University. The Yankees selected him in the 27th round of the Amateur Draft in June of 2018.

Gasper’s main position has been as a catcher, but he’s also been a DH, first baseman, and even played a little second base this past season. But the fact Blaser was the one who made the call probably means the Sox will check him out as a catcher.

“He didn’t say,” Gasper said. “He just congratulated me and said how excited he was to be working with me. He’s the catching coordinator, so if he’s working with me I think they see me as a catcher.

“I played second base against them and they’ve seen me play plenty of first base throughout my years.”

While still grasping the idea of changing organizations, Gasper feels fondly about his Yankee years.

“I learned a lot,” he said. “I learned how to be a pro. And I learned what it takes to be a professional in the game of baseball and how to conduct yourself.

“There’s just a lot of great people I came across that expected you to act a certain way and if you didn’t, they let you know. And you didn’t want to let those guys down.

“I think back on my time with the Yankees and I just know there’s a certain standard to uphold and that’s kind of formed me as a ballplayer and who I am now.”

And now he has to figure out where he goes from Tampa, or as he said, “where my next move is.”

Ironically, Gasper is the fourth member of the Yankees organization to make the move to the Red Sox. Tuesday night Boston traded Alex Verdugo to New York for three pitchers, two of them minor leaguers. One of them, Richard Fitts, was Gasper’s teammate last year as a starting pitcher at Somerset.