You’ve heard of hitters heating up with the weather. Then there is what Marcelo Mayer is doing this May.
After a productive but pedestrian April, the Red Sox No. 1 prospect and No.7-ranked prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline is on an absolute tear since the calendar flipped to May, and he isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. The latest example came Sunday, when Mayer starred in High-A Greenville’s 7-3 win over Asheville with another complete performance at the plate.
Mayer homered, doubled twice, and scored three runs while tying a career high with four hits – his second four-hit showing of the week, one night after setting a career high with five RBIs. The 20-year-old has hit safely in all six games in May, posting multi-hit efforts in all but one while batting .452 (14-for-31) with eight runs, six doubles, three homers and 12 RBIs.
For most prospects, that’s a good month.
For Mayer, that’s been the past week. And it might mean his time is running short at High-A in his second go at the level after earning a midseason promotion in 2022. Mayer put up a strong .828 OPS in his first 25 games at the level last summer. And he’s spent his first 23 games there this season laying waste to it, leaving Sunday’s victory hitting .337/.414/.582 with four homers and 23 RBIs. His 15 extra-base hits rank second across all of High-A.
This is just the kind of development the Red Sox envisioned when they selected Mayer fourth overall in the 2021 MLB Draft, making the precocious shortstop their highest pick in 54 years and signing him to for a franchise-record $6.66 million. Among scouts, Mayer was the consensus top position player in his Draft class. And two years into his career, he’s done nothing to dispel that notion. He keeps hitting like this, and he might be in line for another in-season promotion in short order.