Red Sox: Marcelo Mayer enters Baseball America’s top 100 prospect rankings

The Red Sox first-round pick joins top prospects on an esteemed list

Baseball America released its midseason update to the publication’s annual top 100 prospects list on Monday, and the Boston Red Sox have a new addition as part of their three representatives on said updated list.

As of early June, Boston also had three of the top 100 prospects in the game by Baseball America’s standards, but that particular trio has since changed following the conclusion of this year’s first-year player draft.

In addition to Triston Casas (No. 23) dropping one spot and Jarren Duran (No. 25) dropping two spots, Marcelo Mayer has been added to the list as the 35th-ranked prospect in baseball, per BA.

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Mayer, 18, was selected by the Red Sox with the fourth overall pick in the 2021 draft after being regarded as one of, if not the top prep prospect in this summer’s class.

A shortstop out of Eastlake High School (Chula Vista, Calif.), Mayer had been committed to play college baseball at the University of Southern California, but instead signed his first professional contract with the Red Sox for $6.664 million — the recommended slot value for the No. 4 pick — at Fenway Park last week.

As part of officially signing with Boston, Mayer took batting practice on the field at Fenway and took grounders alongside fellow shortstop Xander Bogaerts ahead of Thursday’s 5-4 win over the Yankees.

“It has been amazing,” Mayer told reporters, including MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. “It has been everything I could ask for. From sitting there on draft day to being here, it’s super special.”

Per his Baseball America scouting report, the 6-foot-3, 188 pound left-handed hitter “doesn’t run all that well, but that’s pretty much the entire laundry list of what he struggles to do. He’s a smooth defender at shortstop with a big arm and should hit for both power and average.”

Mayer, who does not turn 19 until December, reported to the Red Sox’ spring training facility in Fort Myers on Friday and should be in line to see his first action as a pro for the club’s Florida Complex League affiliate in the not so distant future.

With Mayer joining the likes of Casas and Duran on Baseball America’s updated top 100 prospects list, Jeter Downs — who was previously regarded as the No. 69 prospect in baseball — has been dropped off the list entirely.