The Boston Red Sox have three big league Spring Training games under their belt so far, but Marcelo Mayer has not made his first appearance of the spring yet.
We’ve seen a chunk of Boston’s expected position player starters in action, including Roman Anthony, Carlos Narváez, Trevor Story, Jarren Duran, Willson Contreras, Caleb Durbin, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu. But we have not seen Mayer yet. But, Red Sox fans should not worry yet. Mayer made it clear on Feb. 20 that he didn’t expect to get in the first few games of spring because of the fact that he has to take live batting practice off the Trajekt, as transcribed by MLB.com’s Ian Browne.
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“I think I won’t be playing for a few days,” Mayer said, as transcribed by Browne. “I’ve still got to take some live BPs, hit off the Trajekt, a little bit, kind of get my wrist exposed to that stuff. My wrist is in a great spot, but they want me to do that first before I jump into games.”
The Red Sox infielder has a shot at a big role
There isn’t anything to worry about if you’re a Red Sox fan. Mayer has seen plenty of action in Spring Training already with most of his playing time coming at second base. He has also gotten a bit of time at third base but he just hasn’t been in a game yet. That’ll come soon enough. Mayer will not be playing in the World Baseball Classic, which will just give him more opportunities in Spring Training in front of the Red Sox’s brass.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora opened up about Mayer’s standing with the team.
“With Marcelo, like I said yesterday or two days ago, we’ll give him the baton, but he has to run,” Cora said. “You know, if he wants to be the starting second baseman in Cincinnati, there’s a lot of work to do.
“It’s not a given that he’s second baseman or third baseman for this team. There’s a lot of things that he needs to show us this spring, and we expect him to do that because he’s that talented, but at the same time, there’s a lot of guys here that can do the job.”
It’s true that the young infielder needs to earn a job, but there’s nothing to be concerned about yet.
