When baseball fans woke up Tuesday morning there was still nothing to see or hear but uncomfortable labor negotiation news.
That was unless you did a little searching about social media.
As a reminder of why baseball is so usually relished in the days after the Super Bowl, we have images of the Red Sox' first-round pick from 2021, Marcelo Mayer, taking some smooth swings in preparation for his first spring training.
To top it all off, the No. 4 overall pick in last year's MLB Draft was prominently displayed in ESPN's just-released prospect rankings. Kiley McDaniel ranks the shortstop as the No. 22 prospect in the game.
Writes McDaniel: Mayer was the consensus best prospect in last year's draft but ended up going third overall. In part, the perception that he'd want full slot value at the top pick in a year where a half-dozen players were very similar in talent meant that he was less likely to go first with a fixed amount of bonus money available to each team. Mayer isn't a slam-dunk generational talent like many top prep position players in the draft are, but he could eventually become that.
He's a lanky 6-foot-3 with a pretty left-handed swing and plenty of defensive ability to stick at shortstop. Mayer has a solid track record of making contact in games and having a good approach, but his current explosion, both in raw power and general bounciness on defense, doesn't wow you to the eye.
I'm told that some more advanced metrics such as in-game exit velocity and force plate readings suggest there's more there than you can see right now and there's a line of thinking that the twitch will develop as he fills out and gets stronger (this happened in the later teens for a number of midtier international signings like Fernando Tatis Jr.). As is, he's an advanced hitter who plays the most in-demand position well and is good at everything. If things really click over the next few years, he could hit .280 with 25 homers at short, though physically he's probably never going to get as big as Corey Seager is. Christian Yelich is a little more the body type -- but that outcome as a hitter is still very unlikely, while possible.
Non-roster minor-leaguer pitchers and catchers will be reporting to Red Sox camp on March 4.