One-of-a-kind Mayer card sells for $132,000

March 14th, 2022
Bryan Green/MiLB.com

Imagine when he really gets his career going.

Despite garnering all of 91 at-bats in 26 Minor League games, a Marcelo Mayer baseball card cost a happy bidder some serious coin. A one-of-a-kind, autographed 2021 Bowman Draft baseball card featuring MLB Pipeline's No. 9 overall prospect fetched $132,000 at the close of the Goldin Auctions bidding.

The impressive price was the second card in just over a month featuring one of baseball's brightest young talents. A 2020 Bowman autographed card featuring Yankees' Jasson Dominguez, Pipeline's No. 17 overall prospect, set a record in early February when the top bid came in at nearly $500,000.

Bidding on the 2021 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks Autographs Superfractor card opened at $10,000 on Feb. 26 and rose steadily. The bid passed the $100,000 mark shortly before the end of the auction, moving up to $110,000 before the winning bid was cast. Like Dominguez's card, the Mayer collectible is a (1/1), meaning it is the only card of its kind in existence.

Mayer, who turned 19 in December, was the fourth overall pick in the 2021 Draft out of Eastlake High School in Chula Vista, Calif. The Red Sox handed their highest Draft pick in 54 years a record $6,664,000 signing bonus. Mayer made his professional debut later in the summer with Boston's Rookie-level Florida Complex League squad and batted .275/.377/.440 with eight extra-base hits, 17 RBIs and seven stolen bases in eight attempts.

Mayer will enter his first full-season campaign in 2022 and is already impressing Red Sox manager Alex Cora.

“Marcelo, we saw him in Boston [after the Draft], he was tall and skinny, and all of a sudden he’s like, wow,” Cora told MLB.com last week.