{"id":2312,"date":"2026-06-09T13:04:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312"},"modified":"2026-06-09T13:04:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:04:45","slug":"building-block-or-trading-block-for-now-red-sox-taking-the-long-view-with-marcelo-mayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312","title":{"rendered":"Building block or trading block? For now, Red Sox taking the long view with Marcelo Mayer."},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 A rumor flickered in baseball circles Monday, briefly lighting up the phones of a number of executives. Craig Breslow was among them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2310\">Gina Raimondo would like to be president, but she won\u2019t run in 2028<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI had somebody reach out to me and say, \u2018Is it accurate to say you traded Marcelo [Mayer] to the Diamondbacks?\u2019 \u201d recounted the Red Sox chief baseball officer. \u201cThere\u2019s some things that you see, and you\u2019re like, \u2018OK, that is not accurate, but I at least understand where it came from.\u2019 And then there are things that are just blatantly false and don\u2019t deserve a ton of attention, and this falls into that category.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Sox had not traded Mayer to Arizona. Though the Sox and D-backs had discussed the possibility of including Mayer in a package for star second baseman Ketel Marte in the offseason \u2014 the Diamondbacks wanted Mayer in such a deal; the Sox refused to include him \u2014 multiple industry sources suggested there weren\u2019t active talks involving a deal of Mayer to the desert.  <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Get Starting Point<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><label>Enter Email<\/label><\/p>\n<div><button>Sign Up<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>In fact, Mayer was in the lineup against the Rays on Monday. He hadn\u2019t heard about the rumors of a potential deal, but also wasn\u2019t terribly concerned about them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI\u2019m here to play baseball, not to read Twitter,\u201d said Mayer.<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span>Related<span>: <\/span><\/span>Source: Red Sox not considering firing chief baseball officer Craig Breslow<\/div>\n<p><span>But while Mayer remains with the Red Sox, his performance for them merits scrutiny. After going 1 for 2 with a solo home run in the Red Sox\u2019 3-1 loss to the Rays on Monday, the 23-year-old has a .222\/.281\/.311 line. His .592 OPS is among the lowest of any player in the big leagues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>More concerning, Mayer\u2019s production has diminished as the season has progressed. Since May 7, he is hitting .176\/.222\/.257. He\u2019s been making contact, with just a 16 percent strikeout rate during the slump, but simply hasn\u2019t hit the ball with any kind of authority, producing only two extra-base hits over the 26-game span.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cYou\u2019re not happy hitting whatever it is that I\u2019m hitting for the last month, obviously,\u201d said Mayer. \u201cJust got to do my best to get out of it, really. That\u2019s it. I\u2019m in the big leagues, and I need to find a way to produce. . . . There\u2019s no way to sugarcoat it. I\u2019ve just got to let my game speak for itself and start to perform.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><span>On Monday, he did just that in resounding fashion, demolishing a left-on-left sweeper from Rays starter Ian Seymour and launching it 401 feet into the seats in right-center for a solo homer, his third of the season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It was the sort of swing the Sox need to see with greater frequency \u2014 and believe Mayer can produce learn to produce by staying in the big leagues. Whereas the team sent Brayan Bello to Triple-A last week, believing he needed a change of environment to navigate his struggles, they don\u2019t appear to be at a similar point with Mayer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2308\">Democratic group launches ad campaign to help flip control of Congress in midterm elections<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe conversation right now is around making sure we\u2019re doing everything we can to get the best performance out of him,\u201d said Breslow. \u201cHe\u2019s a really smart baseball player, understands exactly what makes him successful. He can kind of self-diagnose the work that needs to be done. There\u2019s a lot of optimism that he\u2019s gonna get on track, and he\u2019s gonna be productive for us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Some of the specifics that give the Sox optimism about Mayer: He\u2019s showing excellent bat speed, he\u2019s making contact, he\u2019s narrowed holes in his swing (making more and better contact against off-speed pitches at the bottom of the zone), his contact point is shifting forward to allow him to get the ball off the ground, and he\u2019s doing the behind-the-scenes work that the team believes will yield improved in-game results.<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span>Related<span>: <\/span><\/span>Aroldis Chapman\u2019s pursuit of Hoyt Wilhelm\u2019s strikeout mark for relievers flying under the radar<\/div>\n<p><span>Most recently, he began implementing a small pre-swing toe tap while hitting in the cage prior to Saturday\u2019s rainout in New York. His at-bats both on Sunday against the Yankees and Monday against the Rays suggested to the potential payoff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201c[I\u2019d] just been feeling really disconnected with my legs,\u201d said Mayer. \u201cIt\u2019s been feeling really good ever since [introducing the toe tap].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Sox believe they\u2019re seeing progress from a young player in the big leagues, rather than someone lost in failure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cHe\u2019s putting himself in a good position to do damage, and now it\u2019s just a matter of squaring those balls up perfectly,\u201d said Sox interim hitting coach John Soteropulos. \u201cHe\u2019s just barely missing the sweet spot. But he\u2019s putting himself in a position to do that damage, and the sweet spot contact is coming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>On Monday, the sweet spot contact arrived against Seymour, as Mayer snapped a streak of 18 straight games without an extra-base hit, the sort of swing to reinforce the Sox\u2019s belief not only in Mayer\u2019s potential but also in his ability to move towards it. Monday\u2019s rumors notwithstanding, they still see him as a building block rather than someone whose greatest value will come on the trading block.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cA lot more young players struggle than are successful and make that transition [to the big leagues] seamlessly,\u201d said Breslow. \u201cWhat we need to do is make sure that we have the staff to support him, and we create an environment around him and all of our other young players that enable them to be themselves, to be comfortable, to be confident, and ultimately to go out and perform on the field.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2307\">Here are nine underdog teams to root for in the World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rumor went around that the Red Sox planned to ship out the struggling second baseman. But how long can the team wait for his bat to come around?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Building block or trading block? For now, Red Sox taking the long view with Marcelo Mayer. - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building block or trading block? For now, Red Sox taking the long view with Marcelo Mayer. - Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A rumor went around that the Red Sox planned to ship out the struggling second baseman. But how long can the team wait for his bat to come around?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Boston Relocation Insider\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-09T13:04:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e\"},\"headline\":\"Building block or trading block? For now, Red Sox taking the long view with Marcelo Mayer.\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-09T13:04:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312\"},\"wordCount\":1020,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/96bbeb3680d908015c1f4eddd1cb2f79.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312\",\"name\":\"Building block or trading block? For now, Red Sox taking the long view with Marcelo Mayer. - Boston Relocation Insider\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/96bbeb3680d908015c1f4eddd1cb2f79.avif\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-09T13:04:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/96bbeb3680d908015c1f4eddd1cb2f79.avif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/96bbeb3680d908015c1f4eddd1cb2f79.avif\",\"width\":1440,\"height\":960},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?p=2312#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Building block or trading block? For now, Red Sox taking the long view with Marcelo Mayer.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Boston Relocation Insider\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Building block or trading block? For now, Red Sox taking the long view with Marcelo Mayer. - Boston Relocation Insider","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Building block or trading block? For now, Red Sox taking the long view with Marcelo Mayer. - Boston Relocation Insider","og_description":"A rumor went around that the Red Sox planned to ship out the struggling second baseman. But how long can the team wait for his bat to come around?","og_url":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312","og_site_name":"Boston Relocation Insider","article_published_time":"2026-06-09T13:04:45+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e"},"headline":"Building block or trading block? For now, Red Sox taking the long view with Marcelo Mayer.","datePublished":"2026-06-09T13:04:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312"},"wordCount":1020,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/96bbeb3680d908015c1f4eddd1cb2f79.avif","articleSection":["Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312","url":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312","name":"Building block or trading block? For now, Red Sox taking the long view with Marcelo Mayer. - Boston Relocation Insider","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/96bbeb3680d908015c1f4eddd1cb2f79.avif","datePublished":"2026-06-09T13:04:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/96bbeb3680d908015c1f4eddd1cb2f79.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/96bbeb3680d908015c1f4eddd1cb2f79.avif","width":1440,"height":960},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2312#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Building block or trading block? For now, Red Sox taking the long view with Marcelo Mayer."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/","name":"Boston Relocation Insider","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c08a982d5d5e7124cea9158df226037e","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com"],"url":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}