Red Sox's Alex Cora Alludes To Marcelo Mayer Potentially Skipping Triple-A

Could Mayer be fast-tracked to Boston?

Scott Neville | May 31, 2023

Red Sox's Alex Cora Alludes To Marcelo Mayer Potentially Skipping Triple-A /

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Boston Red Sox

Would the Boston Red Sox accelerate the development of their top prospect by sending him straight from Double-A Portland to Boston when they deem him ready to do so?

Boston's top prospect without a shred of doubt is shortstop Marcelo Mayer, and he appears to be a candidate to skip Triple-A Worcester. The 20-year-old rising star is MLB Pipelines No. 5 overall prospect in the league.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora seems to think the move would be in the cards.

“We’ve seen guys making that jump," Cora told MassLive's Christopher Smith on Tuesday. "I’m not saying that’s where we’re at. But it’s the reality of the business. He keeps pushing and we’re gonna keep challenging him. It’s going to be a challenge.”

Mayer was the No. 4 overall pick in the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft and has since dominated at every level. The Red Sox made headlines by promoting him from High-A Greenville to Double-A Portland over the weekend.

The well-rounded prospect hit .290 with 18 extra-base hits including seven home runs, 34 RBIs and a .890 OPS in 35 games for the Greenville Drive to open the season.

Mayer enters Double-A as the second-youngest position player in the Eastern League and will likely face adversity adjusting to the highest level of play he's ever seen.

Still, Mayer has passed every test professional baseball has thrown at him so far, and he'll get to make his case for skipping Triple-A altogether with a strong campaign this season.

As Smith noted, former Red Sox prospects Andrew Benintendi and Yoán Moncada both skipped Triple-A entirely. The current face of the franchise, Rafael Devers, played just nine games at Triple-A before earning a promotion to Boston.

It's been done before and Mayer has as strong of a case as anyone to make a similar jump. Regardless, his placement into the upper levels of minor league ball put him on pace for a potential debut in 2024. We'll see Mayer manning shortstop for the Red Sox in no time.

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Published May 31, 2023

SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu