By the end of Marcelo Mayer’s time in Boston, he was getting threats on his social media accounts and Red Sox fans would yell, “Go back to Cali!” at him when he was in the on-deck circle.
“Obviously, it didn’t go the way I wanted,” Mayer said of his Red Sox tenure, “and obviously, outside the lines, it’s a lot over there.”
Mayer, a highly touted 23-year-old infielder, is now back in his home state, about to come off the injured list and make his debut with the San Francisco Giants after the Red Sox traded him for reliever Erik Miller last month. He was Boston’s top pick in the 2021 draft, No. 4 overall but a player consistently listed as the potential No. 1 draft pick that year, but as fans and sports-talk media soured on him, Mayer and his family grew equally frustrated and let the Red Sox front office know they’d be comfortable with a trade.
Right at the deadline on Aug. 3, the teams completed the deal.
“When I found out, I jumped 30 feet in the air,” said Mayer’s dad, Enrique. “I can’t explain how happy we are.”
Mayer was ranked the Red Sox’s best prospect four out of five years, but injuries slowed his development and Mayer gained a reputation for being fragile, an unfair assessment especially because three of his injuries occurred on the field and two others were deemed the result of overwork.
He fouled a ball off his foot this year and Mayer still wasn’t right when he got to San Francisco, requiring a walking boot for a few weeks and delaying his debut. In 2023, he tripped running the bases and hurt his shoulder, an injury he tried to play through for several months. and he snapped his wrist last year, three years after a cortisone shot for a similar wrist injury. When the wrist problem returned, it required surgery, ending his 2025 rookie season.
“Marcelo got a cortisone shot to be ready to come back a month and a half early to help the team in the playoffs and then he gets the rap he doesn’t play in pain?” Enrique Mayer said. “That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Mayer got off to a slow start this season, batting .173 through his first 18 games, and the fans let him hear about it.
“In Boston, if you’re going well, you’re a god and if you’re struggling, they’re going to tear you apart,” Enrique Mayer said. “He didn’t come out as hot this year and the fans thought he didn’t care – that’s the most ridiculous thing to say about a major-league baseball player, people don’t know the sacrifices and work it takes just to get there. But he got a bad rap and if you get a little bit of one in Boston, it just snowballs.”
A back issue earlier in Mayer’s career and a forearm stress reaction this year were both the result of swinging too much – even now, Mayer constantly is swinging, even if he’s waiting around on the field or standing in the clubhouse.
“My whole life I’ve always tried to perfect my craft,” Mayer said. “I train really hard and do all I can, that’s how I was raised, but I definitely need to learn how to turn it down a notch sometimes.”
There never was doubt about Mayer’s ability. Scouts describe the way he makes everything look easy on defense, the way the ball jumps off Mayer’s bat. He profiles as a top defensive infielder with the potential for 20-plus homers and 20 steals; he was 6-for-17 in his brief rehab at Triple-A Sacramento before the foot issue resurfaced, the upshot of a foul ball in June.
“He’s a gifted player,” said Red Sox third-base coach Chad Epperson, who was Mayer’s manager at Double-A Portland. “He has the ability to impact the game on both sides of the ball and on the bases, he can be one of the best players on the field, you can’t argue that. It’s just him staying healthy. San Francisco got themselves a really good player, someone they’re going to be able to lean on.”
Red Sox reliever Christopher Olds played with Mayer in the minors and in Boston and, he said, “Everything the guy does is smooth. Marcelo is a really special player.”
The Giants have loved what they’ve seen, including some batting practice sessions at Oracle Park, and hitting coach Hunter Mense had some familiarity with Mayer from Mense’s days in Toronto.
“The track record was he flew through the minor leagues and hit and didn’t stop hitting and then he got to the big leagues and he just hasn’t gotten consistent time because he’s been hurt or just kind of been up and down, so it’s been sparse at best,” Mense said. “I’ve always believed that those sorts of players who have always shown success, as soon as they get healthy and they get a runway, they’re going to be fine.”
Being a top prospect comes with more eyeballs, more expectations and playing in a place such as Boston only amplifies that. No young players will have a ton of sympathy, of course, for a bonus-baby type player who signed for more than $6 million, but no one imagines that the accompanying attention is entirely positive.
“If you set a record for signing bonus, you’re going to have the spotlight on you anywhere – in Boston, multiply that by 10,” Enrique Mayer said. “It was intense. Marcelo started feeling a ridiculous amount of pressure. He’d say, ‘Dad, I’m on the on-deck circle and they’re ripping me apart, yelling, ‘Go back to Cali! ‘”
Fans noted that Boston’s 15-game winning streak in July came when Mayer was out injured, and Enrique Mayer said the narrative became, “‘See what happens when you get rid of a bad apple? ‘ Marcelo had to turn his Twitter and Instagram off because he was getting threats; it was absolutely crazy.”
Now, Mayer’s with San Francisco and delighted. His dad had grown up in the shadow of Dodger Stadium but as a Yankees fan, so Enrique took the Giants as his National League team.
“I grew up watching Mays, McCovey and Bobby Bonds, I thought those three were the coolest guys ever,” said Enrique Mayer, who also had some classes at Arizona State with Barry Bonds.
That fandom rubbed off on his son, especially when he saw Brandon Crawford, another big shortstop with a mop of wavy hair. But Marcelo is usually on the same wavelength as his dad, anyway. His dad, who played for an Arizona state high-school championship team in Nogales and went on to play in junior college, remains his favorite coach.
“He knows the game so well, studied it so much – he loves it honestly more than anyone I’ve ever seen,” Marcelo Mayer said. “He molded me into becoming the player that I am now. I always 100% trusted him and that trust hasn’t gone away.”
Enrique Mayer said that growing up in San Diego, his son was equally adept at soccer and baseball and he still holds his middle school’s record for the mile, running it in under 5 minutes. Soccer teams inquired about Marcelo playing at European academies, but his heart always was with baseball, making the choice easy when the sports started to bump up against each other. He played at Eastlake High School, Casey Schmitt’s alma mater, and had a verbal commitment to USC until Boston took him in the draft.
When Mayer was in the Red Sox system, Epperson got to know Enrique and Mayer’s mother, Myriam; both are from Mexico and the family speaks Spanish in the house, making Marcelo completely bilingual.
“He’s had a great upbringing,” Epperson said. “His parents were very involved, it’s a wonderful family and he’s like a son to me, I absolutely love Marcelo.
“When I heard about the trade, it was like a gut punch, but I only want what’s best for him, and I do think in this situation, it really is for the better. He’s going to figure this out. He’s well on his way.”
The only thing missing has been stepping onto the field at Oracle Park. The season is in its final week, but Mayer was adamant that he would get into some games with his new team before the season ran out.
“It’s tough to feel like you’re on a team when you haven’t played in a game,” Enrique Mayer said, “but Marcelo says the energy with the team and the vibes are great. I’d love for him to finish the season being able to walk off the field.”
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This article originally published at Giants’ Marcelo Mayer, family thrilled he’ll get second chance after struggles in Boston.