Red Sox
Mayer is expected to be ready for spring training next season.
Marcelo Mayer’s 2025 season is over.
The Red Sox rookie will undergo season-ending wrist surgery, manager Alex Cora announced on Sunday. Mayer will be sidelined for three months as a result, but the team is expecting him to be ready for spring training in 2026, Cora added.
“I’m really sad about what’s going on,” Mayer told reporters. “I want to play. I want to help the team win. But that’s just the hand I’m dealt with right now.”
Mayer has been out with the wrist injury since July 23, leaving the Red Sox’ game against the Phillies early due to wrist discomfort. The TFCC (Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex) in his wrist was damaged, according to the team. He was placed on the injured list two days later and received an inflammation injection on Aug. 2, with the team hoping that it would be able to get him on the field again as soon as possible.
But even after the injection, there was still some pessimism that Mayer would return this season. Ahead of Friday’s game against the Marlins, Cora said that Mayer had begun taking dry swings, but was still uncertain if he would return at all in 2025.
Mayer shared on Sunday that he could’ve undergone surgery when the injury first happened, which would’ve given him a slight chance at returning this season. It also marks the fourth straight season that Mayer has missed significant time due to injury, dealing with multiple ailments since the Red Sox took him with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft.
Mayer, who was a consensus top-15 prospect in baseball entering the season, showed some promise after getting called up in May, but his numbers at the plate weren’t spectacular. He hit .228 with a .674 OPS, four home runs, and 10 RBIs over 44 games.
Defensively, Mayer looked major league-ready in his first two months with the Red Sox. After getting called up to replace an injured Alex Bregman at third base, Mayer made a handful of highlight plays at the corner infield spot and at second base. He only recorded one error to go with an Outs Above Average of three.
Cora said that the Red Sox still plan to make Mayer a key part of their future.
“It was a learning experience,” Cora said when asked how to assess Mayer’s season. “You saw flashes of him offensively. Defensively, he’s a stud. Baserunning-wise, he’s great. Offensively, there’s still some learning to do there, but probably with experience, he was going to get better.”
The Red Sox’ hope was to make Mayer their primary second baseman once Bregman returned from his quad injury in mid-July. That only lasted for a little bit, though, causing the team to have to shuffle their fielders around again. Ceddanne Rafaela, Romy Gonzalez, and David Hamilton have filled in at second base since Mayer went down.
The injury could also allow a pathway for Kristian Campbell to return to the majors after getting sent down to Triple-A in June. However, Cora said on Friday that Campbell still has some work to do before getting called back up.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
