Now is the time for the new Red Sox second baseman to acclimate himself to Fenway Park and perhaps begin forming a relationship with his potential double-play partner.
Monday marks the start of the Red Sox rookie development program, which will see 12 of the team’s best upper-level prospects spend five days at Fenway Park assimilating into a major-league routine in preparation for a real big-league role in the not-too-distant future.
Brian Abraham, the farm director, answered a major query regarding the potential fates of each of the 12 players involved in an interview with The Athletic.
To what extent was last season health-related?
Baseball America continues to rank Mayer as the system’s top prospect. Last year, when he was starting to heat up, he injured his shoulder in early May and attempted to play through it for the whole of the summer, even getting promoted to Double-A just three weeks after the injury. He was eventually shut down at the start of August and never really got going again at the plate.