PORTLAND — When Chad Epperson is standing on the field, leaning against his bat and watching his Portland Sea Dogs go through their pregame routines a few hours before the first pitch, he knows he’s in the exact right place. Even when he spent 12 years as the Boston Red Sox catching coordinator, traveling to each of the club’s minor league affiliates, Epperson knew Portland was a place he could stay.

“My family always wanted to come here, so I made sure when I came it was during a weekend or when they were out of school. To have the opportunity in 2022 to get back into managing and to know it was going to be here, it’s such a great place,” Epperson said. “For a guy like myself, there’s not anyplace I’d rather be.”

This season is Epperson’s fourth as Portland’s manager, tying him with Arnie Beyeler, who managed the Sea Dogs from 2007 through 2010, as the longest-tenured Portland skipper. Beyeler had 282 wins as Portland’s manager. The Sea Dogs began this week’s homestand against the Binghamton Rumble Ponies on Tuesday at Delta Dental Park at Hadlock Field with 24 games left in the regular season.

As long as Portland wins three times in those 24 games, Epperson will get to 283 and pass Beyeler as the team’s all-time winningest manager. The odds are in his favor. Speaking four hours before Tuesday’s game, the record wasn’t something he’s spent a lot of time contemplating.

“You’d think I would, because they bring it up, but nothing’s changing on our day-to-day basis. We come out here and prep the same way, in advance meetings the same way,” Epperson said. “When you’re in the dugout during the game, you’re not thinking about anything but winning the game. Obviously, getting close to it, it’s coming up more and more, but I can promise you it’s not on the top of my list.”

Managers in Double-A, the good ones anyway, are locked in on player development. Some players are young, just starting their careers, and some are veterans looking to find that one thing that will get them to Triple-A, a phone call away from the big leagues. A good Double-A manager is a coach, a psychologist, a parent to a guy either thousands of miles from home for the first extended time, dealing with a language barrier, or both, and so much more. In Double-A, a player may deal with failure for the first time. The game is built for players to fail. Epperson teaches his players how to deal with it. How to learn from it.

His players and bosses in Boston notice.

“Eppy provides a ton of stability, a ton of professionalism,” said Brian Abraham, Boston’s director of player development.

Big league clubs tend to shuffle minor league managers and coaches around. It’s rare to spend more than a few seasons in one place. Epperson saw that earlier in his coaching career, going from Salem, Virginia to Wilmington, Delaware to Lancaster, California. You don’t get comfortable. Four years in Portland, though, is comfortable indeed. It’s close to his home in Derry, New Hampshire. It’s a job he loves.

“If you put the players at the forefront of what we do, and I tell the staff this all the time, we’re here for the players. Whatever that may entail for us to do, whether it’s a conversation, whether it’s extra work, whether it’s telling a player he’s going to sit for a little bit, we always have the best interest of the player in mind. The players do know we care about them, and that’s the biggest thing,” Epperson said.

Catcher Brooks Brannon was promoted to Portland in late June. The transition to Double-A hasn’t been easy, and Brannon had just five hits in his first 51 at bats with the Sea Dogs. Lately, his bat has come along. Brannon had two hits in Saturday’s game against the Somerset Patriots, including a double. Epperson’s support never wavered.

“Eppy’s been around the game a long time, and his No. 1 priority is us, the players,” Brannon said. “Every single day. Every day, I come in and he asks ‘What’s up? How’s it going?’ He here not for just me, but for everybody here.”

If Epperson and his coaching staff are successful, Triple-A is a finishing school for Boston’s prospects. They arrive in Worcester ready for fine-tuning, not a rebuild. The Red Sox current 40-man roster has 13 players who played for Epperson in Portland, not including guys who came through Hadlock Field on a rehab assignment. Others reached the majors with other teams, like Chase Meidroth and Kyle Teel with the Chicago White Sox, or Christian Koss in San Francisco.

For every Roman Anthony or Marcelo Mayer, can’t miss prospects Epperson penciled into the Sea Dogs lineup, there’s a Nick Sogard, an unheralded guy who put in the work and got that call to the big leagues.

“The majority of the people in this game are not superstars, not No. 1 prospects. I’ve always had a special place in my heart for those guys. As long as they’re showing up and doing the work and not taking any shortcuts, I’m all on board with them and I’ll support them,” Epperson said. “If Roman and those guys don’t get there, that’s on us. But the guys you know have put in the work and had to grind a little harder than superstars… It’s a beautiful thing, man, and I’m so blessed to be a part of it.”

Drew Ehrhard is one of those guys. He’s that grinder, the kind of player who benefits the most from a manager like Epperson. He doesn’t show up on any list of Boston’s top prospects. Ehrhard just plays ball, hard.

Now in his second season with the Sea Dogs, Ehrhard has played catcher, first base, second base, and even pitched a couple times. He’s the same kind of player Epperson was. In a career that ended in Double-A, the manager played catcher, first base, outfield … whatever it took to get on the field.

“It has been truly a blessing to be able to play for that man. The unconditional support he’s had for me ever since I joined this organization, he’s been nothing but supportive, always looking out for me,” Ehrhard said.

If Epperson says, “Run through a wall,” Ehrhard will reach top speed. They talk about playing the game with respect, about staying ready for that opportunity. Even when the playing time isn’t there, Ehrhard knows he has Epperson’s support.

“I love playing this game. One day, I hope to coach. If I can be half the manager that Eppy is, I’d say I’m doing all right,” Ehrhard said.

That’s how you get the opportunity to win 283 games in one place.