Sitting down with Marcelo Mayer
LAKELAND, Fla. - Ever since his existence in the Red Sox organization, plenty of spring training attention has been paid to Marcelo Mayer.
There was that home run in a live batting practice session against Nathan Eovalidi three years ago.
Mayer also garnered attention any time he got that random appearance in a far-away Grapefruit League game, or in last year's Futures Game.
But for those focused on the here and the now of the Red Sox, those sightings were somewhat of a novelty. A brief respite from analyzing the real contenders for the MLB roster while dreaming of what might be awaiting in the future.
Well, the future may not be now, but it sure doesn't seem far away.
Mayer continued to emerge as one of the standouts in the early stages of this spring training, coming away with three hits - including a triple that went 408 feet at 103.6 mph and homer which cleared the right field wall at Joker Marchant Stadium.
He is now 5-for-11 while playing impressive defense at both shortstop and third base. In short, he is looking the part of the player the Red Sox were banking on when taking Mayer fourth overall in the 2021 MLB Draft.
"You can tell the moment is not big," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora after Mayer's performance, which came against veteran Detroit pitchers Jack Flaherty and Kenta Maeda. "He’s very comfortable in the environment. He’s a good player. I truly believe, I was talking to Tek, the higher the level the better he is going to be. Sometimes people don’t talk about him. Kind of like he’s the forgotten one. He’s still a freaking good player. We’re going to move him around. He will play short tomorrow. He’s going to keep getting at-bats. It’s fun to be around him, too."
The presence of all three top Red Sox prospects has been part of the spring training buzz since Day 1, with Mayer joining Roman Anthony and Kristian Campbell in living the MLB spring training while lockering side-by-side.
But it has been Mayer who might be standing out the most despite coming in with the least expectations of the three. After being leapfrogged in the prospect rankings by Campbell and Anthony due in large part to the shortstop's injury-induced, start-and-stop last few years, the buzz had shifted.
Not it seems to be shifting back a bit.
"Very (confident). Not cocky. Talks baseball. That’s all he wants to do," said Cora, who will start Mayer at shortstop against the Phillies Friday. "He understands what he needs to do to keep improving. I think he has done an outstanding job connecting with the coaches. They’re in big league camp and this is a good time for him to get to know us. We’ll see what the future holds. It’s fun to be around him."
"It was a good time," said Mayer with a smile when coming off the field after the Red Sox' win. The 22-year-old added, "I try to not give anybody too much credit. I just like to compete. The better the pitcher the more I like to compete against him. I just try and stay in the moment. Obviously those are really good arms out there, both guys. They have had long, successful careers. But to me it’s just baseball. They have to throw it over the plate and I have to hit it."
The goal for Mayer - and the other two prospects - continue to be finding a way on the major league roster. But as February turns into March, that still seems like a talk task even with the Grapefruit League excellence.
Cora noted that the plan is to play Mayer at both shortstop and third base, pushing aside any ideas of integrating him into the second base competition for now. And, obviously, both those spots are currently occupied by entrenched starters, whether it be Trevor Story at short, or the Rafael Devers/Alex Bregman dynamic at third.
But what Mayer is doing is putting himself in a position to ultimately enter into the big league conversation perhaps sooner than some expected considering he still hasn't played a single game at Triple-A.
The Marcelo Mayer so many were waiting to see seems to officially be introducing himself in a memorable manner.