WORCESTER, Mass. -- Opening Day is meant to be a fresh start, an actual beginning, a warming after a cold winter.
If anything, Friday’s opener between Triple-A Worcester and visiting Syracuse at Polar Park felt more like a continuation for two of the top prospects in the game -- Roman Anthony (MLB No. 2) and Marcelo Mayer (MLB No. 12).
“To me, it's the same,” Mayer said. “I mean, when I put the cleats on, I’m playing the same game whether it's Spring Training, playing with my friends back home or playing today.”
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Over the past year, the pair of Red Sox have gotten used to being attached at the hip.
Anthony and Mayer were roommates for 2024 Spring Training, played together at Double-A Portland for much of the summer (solidifying their status as Top 20 overall prospects along the way), formed a dominant prospect group with Kyle Teel (now with the White Sox) and Kristian Campbell and got promoted to Triple-A together in August. Even when Mayer didn’t officially play at the Minors’ top level due to a lumbar strain, he stuck around the club while Anthony surged with a .344/.463/.519 line in 35 games.
As members of Boston’s Big 3 of prospectdom, the pair were some of the last official moves of this spring, even though Mayer (a shortstop) and Anthony (an outfielder) were likely going to be blocked positionally at Fenway Park. Both players went to Monterrey, Mexico for a pair of exhibitions with the big club and starred there; Mayer went 5-for-8 with a homer and two doubles in the country where both of his parents were born, while Anthony was 2-for-8 with a triple and the hardest-hit ball of the two-game series at 113.1 mph.
That series ended Tuesday, leaving Wednesday as a full travel day, Thursday as a workout/Media Day and Friday as another game.
Well, another game to them.
But to fans, coaches and other members of the Red Sox organization, there was plenty of eagerness to see the pair get going in games that actually count.
“Opening Day is always highly anticipated,” Worcester manager Chad Tracy said. “I think this one is a little bit more because those kids arrived here last year -- Kristian was here too -- and we spent the last five weeks of the season getting them acclimated to being here. Now having two of them here for Opening Day, I think they're pretty well known around the industry and around baseball that those are two of the top prospects in baseball. I think people are going to be excited to watch us play, so that definitely raises it a little bit.”
Campbell officially beat the other members of the Big 3 to the Majors when he debuted for Boston on Thursday in Texas, getting the start at second base. But the other two have the tools to follow behind him when there’s an opening or they break down the door. Anthony has been lauded by evaluators all over for his combination of swing decisions and ability to make consistently loud contact. Mayer is a slick fielder at short who could also be an above-average hitter for average and power.
It's reminiscent of a Red Sox system 11 years ago that boasted Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts -- three pillars of great teams in Boston, including the 2018 World Series champs. As it happened, Bradley threw out the first pitch at Polar Park on Thursday and reflected on how touted that group of prospects was and how, in this age of social media and the expansion of Minor League coverage, the current batch of prospects may be surrounded by even more hype and expectations.
“It's maybe heightened a little bit more now, which is rightfully so,” Bradley said. “You have to have something you're proud of. These are usually the people that you drafted. You want excitement.”
He had advice for dealing with all the hoopla too.
“Continue to lean on the people who are trying to help you grow,” he told MLB.com. “This is a hard game, and you're going to have people who are going to want you to be great. There are a lot of people who have your back.”
Much has been made about the central tenets of the Red Sox hitting philosophy that have enabled Anthony, Campbell and Mayer to take such leaps in recent years -- swing decisions, bat-to-ball skills, ball flight and bat speed – and reading between the lines, that’s what Bradley would want the Big 3 to “lean on."
They also have another skill -- the way they handle the “heightened” attention -- as their skipper noted.
“It’s incredible, I think that's maybe their best trait,” Tracy said. “To be that young and have all the cameras in your face and all the attention everybody talking about you across all baseball, they just carry on like it's not even there. It's just in the background. I think, personally, that's what makes them so special.”
Anything can happen in one game, of course, and while Worcester fell to Syracuse, 4-3, in the opener, there were signs that they truly are picking up where they left off. Anthony walked twice in five plate appearances as the WooSox leadoff man. His 18.9 percent walk rate was sixth-best among 456 Triple-A hitters with at least 150 PA in 2024. His 106.7 mph RBI groundout was also the only ball with an exit velocity above 100 mph on the afternoon. Mayer went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in his Triple-A debut but drove two balls deep to right-center that went a combined 717 feet and could have been homers on a day with a different Canal District wind.
Polar Park is notably just a 44-mile drive down the Mass Pike to Fenway. The day may come -- and it may come soon – when both Anthony and Mayer make that drive. That arrival will be the culmination of their partnership and the Red Sox system as a whole. Or maybe, even that Major League debut, will feel like a continuation too.
“It's all baseball,” Mayer said. “Obviously, I know I'm close, but I still have to handle my [stuff] here.”