The Boston Red Sox will enter the 2026 season with projected home run numbers that pale in comparison to its historical production at the plate. Dan Secatore cast doubt on FanGraphs’ projections indicating no Red Sox hitter will break 20 dingers this year, but still acknowledged the reality of a power outage that doomed the second half and playoff race for the 2025 Sox.
Boston has leaned into speed on the bags as of late, but shipping off role players like David Hamilton, whose primary area of contribution lay in offering a devastating pinch running threat, places that approach potentially up in the air, too. In ’25 Boston ranked sixth in MLB in stolen bases while claiming the fourth spot in both hits and batting average.
Last year, Trevor Story led the team in bags swiped with 31, while Jarren Duran and Hamilton followed behind at 24 and 22, respectively. Ceddanne Rafaela was the only other player to nab bases in the double digits. Fortunately for Boston, a new contender among these key baserunning threats has emerged in spring training.
While he only played in 44 games before going down with a wrist injury, Marcelo Mayer posted a goose egg in terms of steals. Mayer played quality defense while standing in for an injured Alex Bregman, but struggled offensively. This year he’s bulked up and gotten significantly faster, clocking 60-yard sprint times that outpace both Story and the team’s speed demon in Duran.
Marcelo Mayer has unexpectedly emerged as the new fastest player on the Red Sox
Mayer entered spring training at 220 pounds, while his MLB.com page lists him at 188. At Story Camp this winter he also flashed immense speed, surprising his teammates.
“He kept posting the best time… he’s got that first-step quickness, and that’s what it’s all about in those short base-running drills,” Story told Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic (subscription required).
Mayer noted that he’s been putting in a heap of work through the offseason in an effort to win a starting role come the spring: “The second I got home, I got to work because I knew there was no time to waste,” the 23-year old said.
With the addition of a power bat in Willson Contreras, and the versatility of Caleb Durbin, who is also working on his power stroke toward the Green Monster’s left field side, Boston’s roster features some notable plugs for its most glaring holes. Durbin, in particular provides quality baserunning value and a consistently difficult at-bat for opposing pitchers. He doesn’t chase or whiff and rarely strikes out while squaring up the ball at an elite level.
Add in Mayer’s return to speedy play on the bags (he noted that as a youth player “speed was such a big part of my game”) and this team may end up being pretty fun to watch.