Willson Contreras criticizes the Red Sox’s young players, and Marcelo Mayer responds

To put it mildly, things are going badly in Boston. After watching the Bruins in the NHL and the Celtics in the NBA get eliminated from their respective playoff runs this week, Massachusetts fans must now turn their attention to the Red Sox, who are struggling in 2026.

The Red Sox are currently languishing in last place in the American League East standings with a record of 13 wins and a whopping 21 losses, and even though it's still early in the season, there's no sign of a turnaround.

Especially since the Sox's locker room is completely falling apart. Indeed, after first baseman Willson Contreras essentially blamed the Red Sox's struggles on the inexperience of the team's young players, one of them, Marcelo Mayer, fired back.

To me, it's kind of an excuse: blaming the young guys. But at the end of the day, we're all playing baseball; we're all pros. We all know what we have 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.

Marcelo Mayer took exception to Willson Contreras' claim that the Red Sox are struggling because of the amount of youth in their lineup pic.twitter.com/GUQWh2IbhG

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) May 4, 2026

If chief baseball officer Craig Breslow believed that firing manager Alex Cora would lead to less tension within the team, he was sorely mistaken.

Not only have the Red Sox gone 3-4 since Cora's departure last week—losing to the Houston Astros 3-1 in ten innings yesterday (Sunday)—but the lack of leadership is more acute than ever.

As was the case last year, the Red Sox may have to make drastic decisions early in the season to prevent the rot from spreading and completely devouring the team.

We miss Alex Bregman in Boston.

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