Red Sox Buzz: Marcelo Mayer, Kiké Hernández, and shades of 2013
With all the mid-level, bargain moves the Boston Red Sox are making, it’s obvious that ownership is putting a lot of weight on building the up the farm system and leaning on homegrown talent.
If they actually paid that homegrown talent, perhaps the team wouldn’t be on a search for an everyday shortstop after letting Xander Bogaerts walk in free agency. With the injury to Trevor Story adding salt to that wound, the Sox need a solution at the position in 2023, a position that should be held down by top prospect Marcelo Mayer in the future.
Among the five Red Sox prospects listed in Baseball America’s top 100 prospects, the 20-year-old Mayer is forecasted as the next great infielder to make his way through the minors. A pure hitter with power, Mayer is a talent who sparks excitement as the future shortstop of the team.
Red Sox are eager for the arrival of Marcelo Mayer
The question is, will his team in the big leagues come sooner rather than later with the departure of Bogaerts? Remember when the Red Sox had a similar bind at third base, a 20-year-old Rafael Devers made his way to the majors as a solution and never looked back.
While the Red Sox are looking to fill that shortstop position with internal options (Kiké Hernández) and a couple of free agents still on the market, perhaps the real hope is that Mayer will show he’s ready sooner as in sometime in 2023.
With Mayer leading the top prospects list at No. 10, other players on that list include Triston Casas (No. 29), Ceddanne Rafaela (No. 71), left fielder Masataka Yoshida (No. 87), and center fielder Miguel Bleis (No. 88).
Obviously, Casas and Yoshida are players the Red Sox are leaning on in 2023, but don’t rule out Mayer getting a shot if he continues to tear it up in the minors.
Red Sox expect Kiké Hernández as the man at shortstop
Speaking of the shortstop position, the Boston Red Sox confirmed during the opening of the team’s annual Winter Weekend that Hernández will indeed be the primary shortstop…at least that is the plan for now.
The team is still rumored to be in on a couple of veteran shortstops via free agency like Elvis Andrus and perhaps old friend José Iglesias, but with the recent signing of Adam Duvall, moving Hernández to fill in at the position seems like the best option.
Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom is very much down with that.
"“Right now, yeah, we have a lot of confidence in him,” Bloom said, via MLB.com. “We have this whole way. It’s one of the great things about him, he’s basically a plus defender wherever you put him on the field. There’s not too many guys in baseball you can say that about but I wouldn’t rule out anything. We have to. Make sure that we’re opportunistic and whatever adds the most impact to our club, we have to ready to do.”"
The team did make it clear they still have holes to fill, Hernández at shortstop is at least a solution.
Could Red Sox mirror the 2013 World Series team?
The Boston Red Sox haven’t made a big splash this offseason.
Other than extending Rafael Devers, there is not much sparking excitement for the 2023 season as the team is seemingly taking the cheap approach again. But hey, they did it in 2013 and struck gold when a bunch of misfits caught fire and overachieved.
Is that the approach with signings like Justin Turner and Adam Duvall?
The team is obviously building around Devers. Is beyond 2023 the focus with current ownership? Well, it appears so…but in the meantime Red Sox owner John Henry says don’t overlook the 2023 version of the Sox.
"“They were a team a lot of people didn’t have a lot of faith in,” Henry said in reflecting on the 2013 team. “We had a really tough year [in 2022] with injuries and we didn’t perform the way you would expect a Red Sox team to perform. We’ve been there before. We’ve been up, we’ve been down, I expect great things in the future.”"
Next. Red Sox need Alex Verdugo to take it to the next level in 2023. dark
With the emphasis on the future, the Red Sox do have younger players like Tristian Casas, Brayan Bello and of course Devers to get excited about. Is it possible they have surrounded them with the right mix of hungry veterans?
If they did, it will be accidental like it was in 2013. We see you John Henry.