The pressure may be off the Boston Red Sox‘s clubhouse, according to Willson Contreras. But the controversy hasn’t stopped.
Red Sox infielder Marcelo Mayer took a swipe at his teammate after Contreras blamed some of the team’s early-season struggles on their proliferation of young players.
The Red Sox, of course, are 13-21 and in last place in the American League East — 10 games behind the rival New York Yankees. They are 3-4 since they fired Cora on April 25, including their series loss to the 14-21 Houston Astros over the weekend.
Marcelo Mayer Accused Willson Contreras of Making ‘An Excuse’
Contreras opened up about why he feels more calm with Cora fired but took an unnecessary dig at Mayer, 23, who is one of the six players on the Red Sox roster aged 25 or under.
“It’s really hard when you go up to bat, and if you look at the scoreboard [and] your numbers are not there in May,” Contreras said. “It’s easy to fall in that trap of the numbers. I’ve done it before. But with a young group of guys I guess we have to be patient.
“But at the same time they’re working hard. They have a really good work ethic; they’re willing to listen.”
One of the Red Sox’s reporters echoed that quote to Mayer but may have left out the final bit where Contreras complimented the young players. Mayer, who has a .662 OPS in 86 at-bats over 30 games, took issue with what the Red Sox’s leading hitter, Contreras said.
“To me, that’s just kind of an excuse: blame the young guys,” said Mayer. “Ahe end of the day, we’re all playing baseball, we’re all pros. We all know what we need to do. I don’t think we’re doing a good job with runners in scoring position. When you don’t do that, you don’t score runs.
“We had a lot of opportunities. We want to win every series, and that’s one we thought we should have had. A lot of runners left on base. Just not good overall.”
Willson Contreras: ‘It’s Different With Alex’ Cora Not Managing
Contreras’ criticism of the Red Sox’s younger player got buried at the end of an initial quote about if they were pressing without Cora ias their manager.
“It’s different with Alex not here,” Contreras said. “But after Cora got fired, the guys got loose a little more because I feel like the tension was gone.”
Contreras may not be the best person to speak for the Red Sox about this subject. The Red Sox acquired him in December from the St. Louis Cardinals for Hunter Dobbins and two minor leaguers, and Contreras only played under Cora for 27 games before the manager and five of his coaches were fired in Baltimore.
Still, Contreras appears to understand the Sox need to play better under manager Chad Tracy.
“That’s what I felt. That’s my own opinion. When Alex wasn’t in the dugout, the team was kinda like loose,” Contreras said. “But that doesn’t matter. We have to play better. We have to find consistency. We have to get better, we have to be better.”
Red Sox 2B Marcelo Meyer Responds to Willson Contreras’ Alex Cora Comments