The majority of Boston Red Sox fans will treat spring training as an opportunity to track who may or may not be making the Opening Day roster.
However, JetBlue Park in Fort Myers is home to so much more.
While the Red Sox kicked off their spring schedule with a win against the Northeastern Huskies on Friday, some of the organization's top prospects got together on the back fields to get in some extra work. Among those prospects were youngsters Marcelo Mayer, Miguel Bleis and Roman Anthony, who according to Alex Speier of The Boston Globe, got some valuable time in the cages together.
Here is a snippet from Speier's report from Friday:
Since the moment Mayer entered the Red Sox system, team officials and players have raved about his interactions with peers. He is bilingual, having grown up in a Spanish-speaking household (his mother is from Mexico), and uses his fluency in two languages to connect with a large circle of teammates.
On Thursday, he happily pinballed between Anthony and a small group of English-speaking teammates and Bleis and other Spanish-speaking teammates, breaking down pitch types in English in one moment and then playfully turning around to take some righthanded dry swings (Mayer is a lefthanded hitter) while coaxing Bleis (a righthanded hitter) to show off his lefthanded hacks.
The moment between Mayer, Bleis and Anthony, who are all ranked in SoxProspects' Top 10 for 2023, was an important one for those who have a keen eye on the future.
The report looks great for Mayer in particular, who is viewed by many as the Red Sox's long-term replacement for franchise icon Xander Bogaerts. The 20-year-old's ability on the field, as well as his bilingual nature, only serve to enforce those comparisons.
Doing so alongside a pair of players who could be playing alongside him in the major league's? Even better.
