Inside the friendship between the Red Sox’ top 3 prospects

On one particular evening in the spring of 2023, Roman Anthony dined with two of the most talented shortstops he had ever met. One of those shortstops was Mikey Romero, whom the Red Sox selected with their first-round draft pick the prior summer, the same summer they chose Anthony. The other was Marcelo Mayer, the highest-ranked prospect in the Red Sox’ farm system.

Mayer and Romero already knew each other. They both grew up in Southern California and played on the same travel ball team together. It would have been very easy for the outfielder to feel out of place at that table sitting next to these two close friends, but he never did. Mayer chatted and laughed with his friend and the stranger he had met not too long prior as if he had known them both for a lifetime. Anthony couldn’t help but feel important. The face of the Red Sox’ future was talking to him as if he were a longtime buddy. 

“[Mayer] really sets an example of what I wanted to do at Spring Training with the guys who’d just gotten drafted,” Anthony told Boston.com. “He was a leader. He leads by example, he plays the game the right way, and he’s a great guy to learn from.”

Mayer’s dinner invitation wasn’t just a chance for the two recent draftees to distract themselves from the pressure of their first-ever spring training. It was his way of letting them know that he was someone they could turn to when they needed anything, from hitting advice to a catch partner to even just a friend. Anthony took notice of Mayer’s message. The rookie outfielder absorbed every word of instruction and guidance that Mayer gave him and kept in touch after that Spring Training ended. They began speaking with each other over the phone by the time Mayer became a Portland Sea Dog (Double-A) in May, and those calls became frequent after Mayer suffered his season-ending shoulder injury in September. The more encouragement and advice they gave to one another through their phones, the closer these two prospects became. A friendship between the California-born shortstop and the outfielder from West Palm Beach was beginning to blossom.

That friendship did not fully bloom until the following spring training, when Anthony and Mayer shared an Airbnb with a few other teammates. They would get out of bed very early each morning, spend their days training at JetBlue Park and return home together in the afternoon, where they would almost always spend their free time with each other. They went golfing together. They watched Entourage with their teammates at Mayer’s insistence, a show that captivated Anthony from his first watch. They took a three-hour trip to Miami on one of their off-days, where Mayer introduced Anthony to some of his friends who were there at the time. Anthony still talks to those friends to this day. They stayed roommates once the season began, and they often hang out with one another in their Portland apartment whenever they’re away from Hadlock Field.

It was around this time when catcher Kyle Teel started to make his meteoric ascent up the Red Sox’ minor leagues. Boston’s first-round pick in 2023 made his professional debut at the Florida Complex League in August and ended his season in Portland just one month later. Anthony was already familiar with the hotshot rookie. He played summer ball with Teel’s younger brother, Aidan, but never officially met Teel until the catcher made it to High-A Greenville, where Anthony was playing at the time. Anthony wasted no time in showing Teel around Fluor Field, where the two became fast friends. They dominated their competition for the three weeks they spent in Greenville together and were rewarded with a joint promotion to Portland at the beginning of September. There, they would wear the same jersey as Mayer for the first time in a regular baseball season. Not long after arriving in Portland, Teel came across Mayer practicing his fielding as part of his injury recovery. The catcher walked away from that encounter in complete awe of his new teammate.

“I saw him doing defensive work — I don’t think he was hitting at the time,” Teel said. “And I was like, ‘Man, this guy’s really good at baseball.’”

Mayer, Anthony and Teel would spend plenty of time with one another in the midst of that offseason, and a tight bond between the three of them would soon form. The Red Sox invited all three prospects to Boston in January for a series of team-related events, including Winter Weekend and Rookie Development Camp. The prospects walked around Boston together during some of those nights and took in the city they all yearned to play for. They rode the T. They attended Boston Bruins games. They enjoyed the company of one another and bonded not just as fellow Red Sox prospects, but as brothers.

The strength of that brotherhood hasn’t waned since January, and it keeps the three Sea Dogs together while they chase their ultimate goal: winning as members of the Boston Red Sox.

“We’re all here to do the same thing,” Mayer said. “We all want to be big-leaguers, we all want to get [to Boston] as quick as possible and help the team win up there.”

…

The ways in which these three prospects carry themselves could not be more different from one another. Mayer is calm, confident and collected with the ability to block any stress or pressure from affecting him. Anthony is relaxed and easygoing, and he uses those traits to keep his cool even in high-leverage situations. Teel is a lightning bolt of energy, an outward motivator for others and a comedian who can draw smiles and laughs from the tensest of rooms.

There’s plenty of contrast in how they go about their business. But for each of them, their business is their sport. All three share an insatiable desire to win and become the best players that they can be, and they use their differences to aid each other in that pursuit. They learn from Mayer’s experience with the organization, Anthony’s maturity for his 20-year-old age and Teel’s recent success in the College World Series. There’s always something they can gain from watching each other play, so they feed off of differences to become better baseball players.

“There’s a lot of good information that you come across when you are on the field working with [Mayer and Anthony],” Teel said, “Just because they’re such good ballplayers and they can give you good insight on how to get better.”

Even during their free time, they will find ways to make themselves better at either the physical or mental aspects of baseball. It’s not uncommon for Mayer to lie on the couch and scout other teams, paying special attention to opposing pitchers that his Sea Dogs will face in the near future. Anthony’s legs all but live in NormaTecs, unless he’s doing push-ups or some other small exercise in his room. Teel enhances the connections he has with his teammates, especially the pitching staff that he catches for.

Each player notices how much work the other two put into their game, even while they’re away from it. That fierce work ethic is something that they all share, and they can’t help but admire it in one another. 

“You’d be so surprised on how much time these guys put into getting better on and off the field,” Teel said. “It’s no joke.”

All that hard work has awarded these three prospects success. As of July 11, the Sea Dogs are 45-37 and tied for first in their division in large part because of impressive stats from these friends, including Mayer’s 84 hits, Anthony’s 10 home runs and Teel’s 49 RBIs. Those numbers have awarded them national recognition, with Mayer ranking 7th, Anthony ranking 14th and Teel ranking 24th on MLB Pipeline’s most recent list of baseball’s best prospects. Many have already started to envision what they’ll look like at Fenway Park and how well their success will translate to the major leagues. As a result, Red Sox fans and analysts alike have begun to associate them with one another as “The Big Three” of Red Sox prospects, the future of baseball in Boston for years to come. 

Much of the discourse surrounding them and their future with the Red Sox binds their names together. It’s rare to hear one of their names in a given conversation without at least a mention of the other two nowadays. It wouldn’t have been difficult for the chatter, expectations and heavy association with one another to impact how they see each other, but their friendship is powerful enough to silence all of that noise. 

“I think it’s really awesome that we have high expectations, all three of us,” Teel said, “And I don’t really think it changed anything [about our friendship] to be honest with you.”

None of the talk about baseball, prospect rankings or what they’re expected to become gets in between these three friends. Though their bond may have been forged in the clubhouse and in the dugouts, their time spent outside of them strengthens it. They’ll play video games together. They’ll watch TV shows together, many of which Mayer discovers. They will do just about everything that 20-to-22-year-old friends do with each other. Because that’s what they are. They’re not just teammates or coworkers. They consider each other just as close with one another as they are with the friends they grew up with.

“I’d consider them to be great friends of mine like I do at home,” Mayer said. “Obviously it’s a little bit different, but at the end of the day, off the field, they are my friends just as well as my friends back at home.”

But this close friendship extends beyond just the Big Three. The connection that Mayer, Anthony and Teel have is one they share with the rest of the Portland Sea Dogs. Some of the most memorable moments in the lives of these three prospects have come during team dinners, or in the clubhouse when Teel brings his turntables and deejays for the team after Sea Dog victories. The only times they leave each other’s company include the rare chances they get to talk to loved ones at home, such as the times Teel occasionally goes off to call his girlfriend. Anthony has even met her a few times over the phone. 

They all enjoy talking in front of their lockers and getting to know one another’s lives, stories and interests. All of that time spent bonding has made for a strong attachment between everyone on the team, from longtime pitchers to the outfielders that have recently joined.

“I know people emphasize us three, but there’s a lot of guys in that clubhouse that we get along with really well,” Mayer said. “I say this all the time: we feel like it’s a travel ball team in there, just because it’s so fun to hang out with the guys.”

That club-wide bond has made the Sea Dogs a team to be feared across the Eastern League. They have the second-best record in their division due to how well they know each other. They’ve memorized each other’s strengths and weaknesses, they practice together all the time and they cherish making each other better. There’s very little stress or anxiety when they play together, because the love they have for one another makes these professional baseball games feel like a fun pickup game on the playground.

“It’s a lot easier when you’re sharing a clubhouse and taking the field with a group of guys you really enjoy playing around,” Anthony said. “We’re all just a group of friends.” 

Though to these guys, their friendship goes much deeper. They spend over half a year playing baseball far away from their loved ones, and their teammates are the only people that they see for most of that time. The more these teammates hang out with one another, the more they view each other akin to the brothers and friends they’re apart from. After enough time spent with each other, the word “friend” starts to understate their affinity for one another.

“I consider everyone here part of my family just because we’re around each other for so long,” Mayer said. “It’s a six-to-seven month season where you’re seeing these guys every single day, where you’re not home, where you don’t really get to spend time with your parents, your brothers and sisters, so you kind of consider these guys family in a way.”

That family isn’t just a Portland Sea Dogs family. It’s a Red Sox organization family. These prospects have built close relationships with the teammates they had in the Florida Complex League, Single-A Salem and High-A Greenville, and they maintain connections with the players they used to share Hadlock Field with, many of whom have since been promoted to Triple-A Worcester and even the major league team in Boston. They’ve only made more friends in this year’s Spring Breakout Game, which featured a team of Red Sox prospects from across the farm.

No matter what league they’re in, anyone fighting for an opportunity to play at Fenway Park is someone that these prospects can get along with, if they haven’t done so already.

“We’ve gotten so close — not just the three of us, but other guys who have the chance to play in the big leagues,” Anthony said. “It’s super motivating because we have such a great farm system all the way from guys in the FCL all the way up to Triple-A. We’re all super close and a tight-knit group.”

This group of Red Sox prospects is united by their love for baseball, their passion for winning and their desire to play in Boston. It’s a group that will only grow as more prospects enter the organization, and it’s a group that Mayer, Anthony and Teel will forever be a part of.

“They’re studs, man,” Anthony said. “They really are.”