The Boston Red Sox have placed a lot of faith in rookies Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer to carry the franchise in just their first full season as big leaguers. However, the latest report from MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam about concerns surrounding Mayer’s work ethic shows that Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow vastly undersold the importance of supplementing the rookies with veteran leadership. 

“Mayer has his detractors within the organization. Some question his mental toughness and his tendency to withdraw during slumps. Others wonder if he couldn’t do a better job making himself more available through the day-to-day minor physical setbacks that inevitably occur,” wrote McAdam on Friday morning. 

Mayer has struggled in his first year in the majors, hitting only .220/.282/.312/.594 in 70 games while having to shift from playing primarily second base to shortstop in the wake of the injury to Trevor Story, before being placed on the 10-day injured list on Friday afternoon. 

Before being placed on the injured list, the 23-year-old had missed time here and there in recent weeks due to minor ailments, such as a stiff neck that kept him out of the series finale in Tampa on June 10, or a sore foot that initially sidelined him for the Wednesday finale in Colorado, something that has obviously drawn some ire within the organization. 

Still, though, Mayer was and presumably still is, looked at as the franchise cornerstone at shortstop. However, the organization has done both him and Anthony a disservice by their refusal to surround them with veteran leadership, something that has been done for every other homegrown star in recent memory. 

Xander Bogaerts learned under the tutelage of David Ortiz, Mookie Betts learned from both Ortiz and Bogaerts, while Rafael Devers had both Bogaerts and Betts to show him the path to being a successful big leaguer. Whether it be Bogaerts, Betts or Devers, all of Boston’s homegrown stars have been brought up by veterans who know what it takes to win, and more importantly, know what it takes to win in Boston. 

Of course, in both Mayer's and Anthony’s cases, they had Alex Bregman in the clubhouse for their brief stay in the majors in 2025, who, by all accounts, was an incredible leader within the clubhouse. Anthony told the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier that “He’s [Bregman] helped me up until this point more than anyone probably in the big league level,” ahead of March’s World Baseball Classic, where the two were teammates on Team USA. 

"It goes such a long way," Mayer told WBZ's Dan Roche about Bregman's leadership on May 25, 2025. "When you have somebody that has been around the game for so long and won so many times... You soak in all the knowledge that you can," he continued.  

Bregman’s impact on the young duo was clearly overlooked by Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow, as the 32-year-old left Boston in free agency, taking his talents to the North Side of Chicago, with the reported holdup being Boston's refusal to include a no-trade clause in the deal. 

Leadership, or lack thereof, was a topic of heavy discussion throughout the first two months of the season, with Breslow, former manager Alex Cora, and interim manager Chad Tracy pointing to veterans Sonny Gray, Trevor Story, Willson Contreras, and Garrett Crochet as leaders in the clubhouse. 

However, seemingly none of the five have resonated with the young duo as much as Bregman did during his brief time in Boston. As the Red Sox look ahead to rebuilding after the disappointment of the 2026 season, identifying and adding a leader for this young core has to be one of their top priorities. 

The Red Sox will look to secure their third series win of the year at Fenway Park in game three of a four-game set against the Yankees on Saturday afternoon. Jake Bennett (1-3, 3.71 ERA) for Boston opposite Gerrit Cole (2-2, 3.62 ERA) for New York. First pitch set for 1:10 p.m. ET. 

Remember to join our RED SOX on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Red Sox fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!