Alex Cora loved shuffling the Boston Red Sox's lineup (before he got fired) to get the best possible order for his offense. So far in 2026, his many changes have been in vain.
The Red Sox have struggled to make sense of things at the plate, as is well documented by now. Cora had moved players up and down the lineup, in and out of the designated hitter spot and tooled around with lineup-based matchups to no avail.
Lineup-based moves were Cora's bread and butter, for better or for worse. Masataka Yoshida is one of Boston's hottest hitters but has seen most of his playing time against righty pitchers. Marcelo Mayer also often sat against lefties, which is a troubling pattern for a few reasons.
Mayer's most common platoon partner this season has been Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who's had trouble offensively, to say the least. Kiner-Falefa has never been more than a league-average hitter at best, so the Red Sox never expected him to be a slugger, but his .212/.257/.212 line through 13 games is disappointing.
Marcelo Mayer should play for Red Sox as often as possible given his platoon partners
Kiner-Falefa is recent proof that right-handedness doesn't guarantee success against lefty pitching. The journeyman infielder is slashing .071/.071/.071 over eight games against southpaws since he arrived in Boston.
In comparison, Mayer is slashing .200/.200/.800 in four appearances against a lefty. His numbers don't jump off the page, but he's knocked a home run and two RBI off a lefty while Kiner-Falefa doesn't have a single extra-base hit on the season.
Mayer is also just 23 years old and he'll need plenty of practice against lefty pitching to eventually see the ball better. Depriving him of too many opportunities to see a southpaw was a mistake by Cora, and would be another under Chad Tracy.
Mayer is one of the best defenders in the Red Sox's infield. His two outs above average rank in the 93rd percentile among shortstops. Boston's 14 errors in 24 games show that it needs every defensive advantage possible, whenever possible, especially when the team is also struggling in almost every other metric — if the pitchers can't limit damage and the offense can't get going, the defense needs to be flawless to limit runs.
When Romy Gonzalez returns to action from his shoulder injury, the Red Sox should resume conversations about platooning Mayer. Not only did Gonzalez bat .331/.378/.600 against southpaws last season, he's also a sound and versatile defender who could slot anywhere in the infield. For now, though, the Red Sox should be giving Mayer more opportunities to improve — Tracy doesn't need to be making lineup exceptions for Kiner-Falefa like Cora did.
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