Marcelo Mayer thought he might play by the ache. After hurting his shoulder in May he saved taking the sphere, striving to proceed his march by the minors in hopes of incomes one other promotion and taking one other step in direction of realizing his massive league dream.
But as his efficiency and well being suffered, the highest Red Sox prospect was ultimately pressured to confess he was making a mistake.
“I think a lot of that is on me, not really knowing my body and not knowing how to handle a full season or really communicate with my trainers,” Mayer stated. “But looking forward now, that’s in the past, my shoulder is in a great spot.”
After what has confirmed to be a prolonged restoration course of, the 21-year-old shortstop is sort of again to full well being and is anticipated to be full-go by spring coaching. Mayer stated he’s been hitting off a tee and can quickly begin going through dwell pitching, and Red Sox director of participant improvement Brian Abraham stated he has no restrictions as he completes his ramp-up.
“It’s obviously been a long and arduous road for him, and some ups and downs for sure, but we’re excited for him to come to spring training fully healthy and be ready to compete this year,” Abraham stated.
Though Mayer was held out of Trevor Story’s current infielder’s camp in Dallas, he and Boston’s different prime younger prospects have been in Boston this week for the group’s annual Rookie Development Program. The weeklong program goals to assist put together rookies for all times within the massive leagues, and along with drills and exercises, the rookies additionally heard a chat from Boston Celtics president Brad Stevens and can participate on this weekend’s Winter Weekend festivities in Springfield.
The week in Boston has additionally been an awesome bonding alternative, bringing collectively a few of the membership’s extra established prospects like Mayer, outfielder Roman Anthony and catcher Kyle Teel in addition to a few of the more moderen additions, like pitchers Justin Slaten, Richard Fitts and Isaiah Campbell, all of whom have been acquired this offseason in trades.
“We’ve developed a great close bond with each other,” stated Anthony, who has rapidly risen by the ranks since being chosen within the second spherical of the 2022 MLB Draft. “We all get dinners together, whether it’s during the year, during spring training, whatever it is, we’re always hanging out and I think that’s why this group is so close and tight knit.”
The Red Sox hope the seeds planted over weeks like this might blossom right into a future championship contender, and prime membership decision-makers haven’t been shy about saying so. Earlier this week chief baseball officer Craig Breslow stated he views the event of Mayer, Anthony and Teel into influence massive leaguers because the membership’s quickest path to a championship, a candid admission that they — not a hypothetical big-money free agent acquisition — would be the ones to find out the membership’s long-term destiny.
No stress, proper? Whatever the expectations, the prospects say they’re dedicated to reaching their full potential, and whereas the popularity they’ve acquired is sweet, they don’t plan on letting it get to their heads.
“It’s definitely exciting, it’s an honor to be talked about like that, but at the end of the day we haven’t done anything,” Mayer stated. “In order for that to become a reality we all know we have to work extremely hard and work together and try to get better every single day.”
“You have to take that as a positive, but we’re not there yet,” Anthony stated, echoing Mayer’s response. “We’ve got a lot of work to do and a long ways to go before we’re there.”