NORTH PORT, Fla. – If Marcelo Mayer needs to earn his spot on the Opening Day roster, or take the baton and run with it, as manager Alex Cora continues to put it, the 23-year-old got off to a running start on Friday.
Playing his first game since undergoing right wrist surgery last August, Mayer swiftly swatted his bat through the zone and hammered a solo home run to right field against Braves closer Raisel Iglesias.
It was his second at-bat in his first game action since July 23, when his ‘25 season was abruptly halted by wrist pain in Philadelphia.
No one will ever know if Mayer could have turned his quiet start offensively into a more impressive stat line, but Friday provided an example of what his best friend Roman Anthony already knows.
“He's a stud,” said Anthony. “I've known that for a while, so nothing he really does surprises me, but it was great to see him back out there, and he looked like himself, and he obviously had some great swings, but he just looks comfortable as always.”
Perhaps Mayer was just getting comfortable with Major League pitching on that evening when he injured his wrist.
Now, Mayer hopes he can display that comfort Anthony mentioned for a full season as, most likely, Boston’s starting second baseman, though the hot corner remains in play.
In his first 136 career plate appearances covering 44 games, Mayer had a batting line of .228/.272/.402 with four homers and 10 RBIs. They were numbers he didn’t enjoy carrying with him into the offseason. But the underwhelming numbers in a small sample size didn’t deter that trademark confidence befitting of a man who was selected fourth in the 2021 Draft.
“I know who I am,” Mayer said. “So my job is to just go and show it. I believe 100% in my ability, and I know that with enough time, when people watch, they'll know who I am as a player, 100%.”
While Mayer doesn’t dispute that he needs to prove he’s ready to be consistent at the highest level, he did allow himself to appreciate Friday’s milestone of getting back on the field.
“It felt great,” Mayer said. “It's been a long time. So I was just excited to play a game of baseball again.”
On the homer, Mayer smashed the 94.4-mph offering from Iglesias at an exit velocity of 105.3 mph, drilling it a Statcast-projected distance of 381 feet. It would have been a homer in 29 MLB parks. Ironically, the only one it wouldn’t have found the seats in? Fenway Park.
But Mayer has a swing that has played for nearly all of his baseball life. Health has typically been the only thing that has held him down.
“Yeah, I put a good swing on it,” Mayer said. “That was my whole goal. Obviously, I was a little nervous going into my first game after seven months not knowing what to expect, but I felt pretty good out there.”
The Red Sox kept him out for the first week of Spring Training games just to make sure he didn’t push his surgically-repaired wrist too hard out of the gate. When Mayer finally got back into action Friday, he was ready to let the results of a productive offseason start playing out in real time.
“Before the game, I was thinking about the last time I took the field in Philly,” Mayer said. “I feel like a whole different person right now compared to who I was then. It’s just been a very long time, a long road.”
In what way does he feel different?
“I think I'm just stronger, bigger,” Mayer said. “I think you change a lot in eight months in every way. I think you mature a little bit.”
While Cora is clearly challenging Mayer this spring, he is also confident the left-handed hitter will respond to it.
“Like I said, give him the baton,” Cora said. “Most likely he'll run with it. I have no doubts that he's a capable big leaguer, but we'll decide that either later in camp or whenever it is. You’ve got to perform. We'll know, we’ll know with time what we’re gonna do, but he has a really good chance to go to Cincinnati [for Opening Day] with us. We’ll see what happens.”