Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom isn’t looking to downplay the fast start top prospect Marcelo Mayer is off to with High-A Greenville this season.
Instead, Bloom generated more buzz that is already surrounding the 20-year-old shortstop with his current assessment of the No. 4 overall pick in the 2021 Major League Baseball Draft.
“Even before the results, a lot of the under-the-surface things were really good, and now the results have been there,” Bloom told NESN’s Tom Caron on the latest episode of the “TC & Company” podcast. “There’s always this balance to make sure you’re not moving a guy too quickly versus not letting him stagnate, but the fact of the matter is he’s been one of the better hitters in the minor leagues and doing it at an age when very few guys perform at that level.”
Mayer split his first full season of minor league baseball last year between Single-A Salem and Greenville. But starting this campaign off with the Drive, Mayer is putting on a hitting clinic.
Mayer is slashing .296/.369/.546 to go along with seven home runs and 29 RBIs while also stealing four bases in 32 games. Earlier this month, Mayer put together a torrid stretch over a week span in which he batted .516 (16-for-31) with a 1.516 OPS to go along with three home runs, six doubles and 12 RBIs.
And with Mayer, who is currently ranked the fifth-best prospect in all of baseball by MLB Pipleine, still several levels away from reaching the big leagues, it is those type of performances that has him grabbing the attention of Bloom and the Red Sox.
“He’s playing a good shortstop, and inside the clubhouse, he’s the guy everyone gravitates to,” Bloom told Caron. “He’s just continuing to show all those special qualities when we drafted him. Obviously it’s something we talk about all of the time. The good thing about him is he has his feet planted where he is. He’s there to win and dominate whatever level he’s at, but it’s hard not to take notice of what he’s doing.”
