Red Sox top prospect to miss Rookie Development Camp in Boston
The Red Sox Rookie Development Camp is underway in Boston this week, the regular program the club puts on that’s designed to focus on the assimilation into Major League life on and off the field.
Boston initially announced seven players that would participate in this year’s program, including shortstop Marcelo Mayer, outfielder Roman Anthony and Jhostynxon Garcia, infielder/outfielder Kristian Campbell, catcher Carlos Narvaez, and right-handed pitchers Hunter Dobbins and David Sandlin.
Despite being announced, Mayer will miss the program due to being sick, according to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. The top prospect also missed Fenway Fest in Boston on Saturday, as well.
Mayer is coming off another season where he was shut down due to an injury and subsequently missed the remainder of the year. The Calif. native was promoted to Triple-A Worcester on Aug. 12 but never played in a game due to suffering a lumbar strain while he was in Portland. Mayer hit .307/.370/.480 with 8 homers and 28 doubles in 77 games with Portland.
Boston is considering having the shortstop play both second base and third base this season to create positional versatility. By playing other positions in the infield, it’ll give Boston positional versatility once he makes it to the big leagues.
Mayer is heading into spring training healthy and should start the year with Triple-A Worcester. He never played an inning for the WooSox and will need time with the WooSox seeing Triple-A pitching before Boston will consider promoting the talented infielder.