Boston Red Sox first-round pick Marcelo Mayer earned some very favorable player comparisons after being selected No. 4 overall in the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft on Sunday.
Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager was one of those comparisons along with San Francisco Giants’ Brandon Crawford. And then there were those who linked Mayer to fellow Eastlake High School alumni, and former Red Sox slugger, Adrián González and even Chipper Jones. Some great company, right?
Well, perhaps the most intriguing comparison Mayer received was not to any of those aforementioned, or any baseball player, actually. It was to a candy bar — a Snickers to be exact — by Red Sox amateur scouting director Paul Toboni.
Toboni, as explained by The Athletic’s Chad Jennings, referred to Mayer as a “Snickers” due to a reference in which candy bars were used to explain a below-slot drafting strategy. Using that analogy, Toboni spoke about a player who is the most talented, but also the most expensive.
Jennings actually used the candy bar reference in a story earlier this month for The Athletic.
“I once had it explained to me this way: Imagine you have $10 to spend on candy bars. Your favorite is Snickers, but Butterfinger and Twix are close runners-up, and at the very bottom of your list is a Kit Kat,” Jennings wrote on July 8. “At this store, a Snickers is $7, a Butterfinger and Twix are each $5, and a Kit Kat is $3. Do you automatically buy the top-of-the-list Snickers, and then add a bottom-of-the-barrel Kit Kat? Or does it make more sense to skip the Snickers, and have the nearly-as-good Butterfinger and Twix? If you really love the Snickers, then maybe it’s worth going for the singular choice. That’s spending full slot, or even over-slot, in the first round. But if it’s close, maybe you buy the Butterfinger first, and still have enough money to get the Twix, too. That’s an under-slot strategy.”
Essentially, Toboni is saying the Red Sox felt they should go with their favorite option at No. 4 overall even though it may limit what they could do — and what candy bar they could purchase — later on.
“Obviously, what we think we’re going to pay Marcelo will impact some of what we do going forward,” Toboni told reporters Sunday, per The Athletic. “But the goal remains the same, just to build as much value as we can and bring as much value as we can into the system.”
Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom likely was more than satisfied with the addition of Mayer, but he wasn’t full just yet. And Bloom, who was praised by MLB analysts for the selection of Mayer, further filled his stomach with perhaps another steal in the second round.
The Red Sox selected Florida outfielder Jud Fabian with Boston’s second-round pick at No. 40 overall. Fabian was once regarded to go early in the first round with MLB Pipeline grading him the No. 23 prospect in the draft.
So perhaps Bloom was able to get a Snickers and a Twix for the price of a Snickers and a Kit Kat after all?
