The shortstop prospect is out for the season with a lumbar injury.
Marcelo Mayer is, easily, the most hyped Red Sox prospect of my lifetime. Due to circumstances entirely beyond his control — circumstances created by each of the last two Chief Baseball Officers, both of whom publicly signaled that they were waiting for Mayer’s development before aggressively competing at the Major League level — there are many, many casual Red Sox fans who simply assume that Mayer already has reserved wall space in Cooperstown.
But the truth is that Mayer, contrary to the hype, is not the best Red Sox prospect of my lifetime. And like all prospects, he is unlikely to end up in Cooperstown, or even in an All-Star uniform. He certainly could achieve both milestones (and, of course, no Red Sox fan should ever bet against a left-handed Mexican-American hitter from San Diego) but it should not and can not be expected of him.
All of this is to say that Mayer is getting a raw deal. He could go on to to have a very fine Major League career as an above-average infielder who makes his teams better (that’s more or less what Baseball America’s Geoff Pontes predicted for him when he compared him to Jeimer Candelario on the Red Seat podcast last year) and yet, because of all the hype, many fans would label him as a bust.
If you don’t believe me, head to Twitter and type Marcelo Mayer and bust in the search bar right now.
Yesterday, the Red Sox announced that Mayer would miss the rest of the season with a lumbar strain. For the second year in a row, he has failed to play 80 games. And now, a player who has done nothing but excel at every stop on the minor league level is being labeled an injury-riddled bust before he even plays a single inning of AAA baseball.
This is not fair to Mayer, and the Red Sox are to blame. Both the initial decision to build an organization-wide roster construction strategy around a high schooler, then the relentless hyping of “the Big Three” of Mayer, Roman Anthony, and Kyle Teel (including the seemingly PR-driven decision to promote them all together) have inflated expectations like a hot air balloon. Unfortunately, when you keep pumping hot air into something, eventually it’s going to pop.
Nothing about Marcelo Mayer’s career has been decided. No baseball player is defined by his first three seasons in the minors. But Mayer’s reputation is being publicly shaped as we speak. The Red Sox exercise considerable power over what shape it takes. They need to start using that power responsibly.