'All he does is hit homers and blow bubbles': Red Sox prospect Marcelo Mayer continues to pop at the plate for Triple-A Worcester
WORCESTER — As Marcelo Mayer stood in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency in Rochester, New York, on the night of April 17, the Red Sox prospect set up his cell phone in the corner and FaceTime'd his father, Enrique.
After going 1 for 7 with a single and two strikeouts in Triple-A Worcester's doubleheader that day, and seeing his batting average dip below .200, Mayer wanted to work on his swing. So for roughly two hours, Mayer practiced his stroke with a BodyArmor drink bottle in his hands while his father observed on the other end of the phone.
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'I'm in the corner of the lobby, it was a huge lobby, so nobody could see me,' Mayer, 22, said. 'I'm not that weird. So I just put (my phone) up there, and we were watching film, and I was doing slow-motion swings.
'(My dad's) been my coach my whole life,' Mayer added. 'He knows me better than anyone else. So the fact that I'm able to talk to him every single day and that we're able to work on things that I worked on when I was a six-year-old kid, means a lot.'
WooSox slugger Marcelo Mayer blows a bubble with his gum while making contact earlier this season.
The next day, Mayer mashed a 400-foot grand slam with an exit velocity of 108.1 mph. He drove in seven runs during his team's 20-7 win over the Rochester Red Wings.
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Pops was proud.
'He gave me props,' Mayer said ahead of the WooSox' doubleheader April 23 at Polar Park. 'I was the one who reached out, but that's just the relationship we've had my whole life. He's the guy that that I was working with at the park when I was six years old. He never told me I couldn't do something, and that kind of went a long way with me growing up.
'So just the way that we get after it together, it's awesome.'
Since that FaceTime with his father, Mayer has found his stroke at the plate.
In his last six games, the left-handed hitter has 12 hits in 26 at-bats (.462 average) with four homers and 16 RBIs. On April 22, Mayer smacked his fifth home run of the season in the fifth inning of Worcester's 5-0 win over the Syracuse Mets, and the following day connected for home run No. 6 in the second game of a WooSox sweep of 5-4 games.
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Mayer, who extended his multiple-hit streak to six games, leads the International League in RBIs with 26. Following the doubleheader, he was batting .277.
Marcelo Mayer takes a practice swing before an at-bat earlier this season.
'He's squaring it up again,' WooSox manager Chad Tracy said. '(He's) in a place where he wants to be (at the plate).'
Tuesday's dinger went 401 feet and was hit with an exit velocity of 103.5 mph. As Mayer rounded the bases, WooSox broadcaster Mike Antonellis summed up the Sox shortstop prospect succinctly.
'All he does is hit homers and blow bubbles,' Antonellis said.
Put that on a T-shirt. Hubba Bubba is Mayer's bubble gum of choice.
'I like chewing on something while I'm hitting. It kind of takes my mind off things,' Mayer said. 'Now I always have gum in my mouth.'
WooSox shortstop Marcelo Mayer gets ready for play during a game at Polar Park on April 13, 2025.
Whatever works. Between bubble gum and BodyArmor, Marcelo Mayer is popping at the plate as of late for the WooSox.
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A two-hour FaceTime with his father proved to be the spark.
'Right now, I feel really good,' he said. 'I'm just trying to get a good pitch to hit and get my 'A' swing off.'
—Contact Tommy Cassell at tcassell@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Sox prospect Marcelo Mayer swinging a hot bat for Triple-A Worcester
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