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Boston Red Sox
Last night, in the bottom of the sixth, Alex Cora sent up Romy Gonzalez to hit for rookie infielder Marcelo Mayer, who had started the game at third base. It was the third time in Mayer’s last three starts he’d been pinch-hit for, and with Mayer sitting against lefty starters, he hasn’t played a full game since June 1.
If I’ve hit one point again and again in this space, it’s that you can’t mess around with your best prospects. Mayer was the fourth pick in the 2021 draft. He has been rated in the top 50 by every prospect hound since, and in the top 25 by most of them. The Sox declined opportunities to trade Mayer when they were in the wild-card chase each of the last three seasons. He’s not some guy. He’s one of the cornerstone players for a team that burped up two other cornerstone players in the last year.
Alex Cora has to knock this crap off, immediately. Mayer has 13 plate appearances in June, which is how you ruin a 22-year-old. Cora is treating Mayer like he’s Rance Mulliniks, not his everyday third baseman, and there’s no cause for that.
For one, we have no idea whether Mayer needs to be platooned. He’s gotten seven plate appearances against lefties, with a single and three strikeouts. In the minors this year, he slashed .271/.300/.458 against southpaws, more than respectable, though his 15/1 K/BB is reason for concern. In 2024, he hit .258/.319/.355 against lefties, in 2023, it was .250/.281/.423. We’re talking about fewer than 200 PAs against lefties in the the three years combined, and given how minor-league starters are used, probably never seeing a lefty three times in any game. There is absolutely nothing in his record so far that justifies treating him as a strict platoon player.
Cora’s mishandling of Mayer informs what he’ll do with Roman Anthony, who made his MLB debut last night and, sure enough, was pulled against a left-handed reliever in the 11th inning. Cora left Anthony in to face southpaw Garrett Cleavinger in the sixth but couldn’t help himself five frames later, pinch-hitting Rob Refsnyder for Anthony.
From the day he got the job, and then got it a second time after his suspension, Alex Cora has managed a veteran-heavy team with a mandate to win now. The second part of that is still there, with the Red Sox 4 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot, having not made the playoffs in four years. We have no idea, though, whether Cora can develop young players. With Mayer, Anthony, Kristian Campbell, and Ceddanne Rafaela all on his roster, Cora has to shift his approach, even if it means giving up some leverage in spots. If he can’t see his way to treating those four as everyday, every-inning players, he’s the wrong man for the current Red Sox.
