BOSTON -- Marcelo Mayer, Boston's No. 2 prospect and No. 8 in MLB, was added to the Red Sox’s roster and made his Major League debut in their 2-1 loss in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Orioles.
Mayer took the roster spot of third baseman Alex Bregman, who was placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained right quad. First baseman Triston Casas (left patellar tendon rupture) was transferred to the 60-day IL to make room on the 40-man roster for Mayer.
Immediately following his team’s 6-5 win in Game 1 of the doubleheader, Red Sox manager Alex Cora had not yet talked with chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, so he could not officially confirm Mayer’s status, except to say:
“If he’s here, he’s playing.”
But Cora remembered Mayer’s Spring Training performance.
“He’s a baseball player,” Cora said. “Very smart. The defense is natural for him. He’s a good baserunner. Obviously, offensively still learning. Early in camp he was chasing a lot of pitches, soft. That was what we were working on, and he did an amazing job towards the end of camp covering those holes. Honestly, I got to get back to watch and see the metrics and where we’re at offensively. And I think the other two aspects of the game, we’re going to be OK.”
Mayer’s presence a few minutes later in the Red Sox clubhouse, though, confirmed what Cora could not.
Mayer -- who got the start at third and went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his Major League debut -- was Boston’s first-round (fourth overall) pick in the 2021 Draft out of Eastlake High School in Chula Vista, Calif., and quickly worked his way up the Minor League system. In 43 games with Triple-A Worcester this season, the left-handed hitter slashed .271/.347/.471 with nine home runs and 43 RBIs, playing shortstop (29 games), second base (10) and third base (4) and serving as the DH in one. In total, he has played just six Minor League games at third base, including one each in 2023 and 2024 at Double-A Portland.
Mayer, 22, was promoted to Worcester at the end of last season, but did not appear in any games because of a back issue.
“He’s right at the top of the list,” Worcester manager Chad Tracy told Katie Morrison-O’Day of MassLive of Mayer’s talent. “He didn’t get to play here last year with the back, but he did not look overmatched even slightly. And, in most cases, I don’t know if he is now, but a lot of times he’s close to the top of baseball in RBIs. He’s had a knack for the big moment. That’s the thing that stuck out to me the most about him is when the game finds him in a moment where we need him, he could be 0-for-7 and then all of a sudden the game will find him with the bases loaded and he’s going to try to find a way to come through and do something big. So he likes the lights and he’s a heck of a player. And he’s very calm and, obviously, has done more than enough to warrant this happening.”
Tracy spoke to Mayer before the first game of Worcester’s home doubleheader against Durham on Saturday, to let him know he wouldn’t be playing that game, before delivering the news later.
“He brought me in in the morning and told me I was scratched from the first game, just to see what was going on,” Mayer said as he stood in the Red Sox clubhouse. “Then he brought me in a little later and said something along the lines of, ‘You’ll play the second game, but not here. You’re playing at Fenway.’ And I just got like this crazy rush through my whole body. It was a really good feeling.”
According to Morrison-O’Day, Mayer was getting congratulations in the clubhouse from teammates after getting the news. But, Mayer’s Worcester departure was slightly delayed because he couldn’t find his car keys, which have actually been missing for about three weeks, Mayer said. So a WooSox clubhouse attendant drove him to Boston. Polar Park is about an hour’s drive from Fenway Park.
Mayer spent the drive answering all the texts he’d gotten about his promotion. The first call he made after he got the news was to his dad.
“It was surreal,” Mayer said. “The emotions were running pretty high. It’s something me and my family have worked towards ever since I started playing the game. It was a moment that I definitely wanted to share with them before it got out to the media.”
While he did not have time to make arrangements for family or friends to be at Game 2 Saturday -- “other than 30,000 fans,” he said -- Mayer is hopeful his parents will be at Fenway on Sunday.
Mayer said he hasn’t been givien any instructions on what his role with the Red Sox will be, except to be ready, whenever it is.
“It’s awesome to play for a city like this that cares so much about their team and is so passionate about the Red Sox and the Red Sox winning,” Mayer said. “It kind of holds everybody to a higher level of playing. It’s something that I’m looking forward to playing for.”
Asked what he would tell his younger self, Mayer replied:
“That he did it.”