Red Sox's Marcelo Mayer Denies Willson Contreras Beef

Apr 27, 2026; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Boston Red Sox second baseman Marcelo Mayer (11) celebrates in the dugout with team mates after scoring a run against the Toronto Blue Jays in the sixth inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

Red Sox's Marcelo Mayer Denies Willson Contreras Beef

Originally posted on Boston Red Sox on SI
By Patrick McAvoy | Last updated May 5, 2026 9:00 AM ET

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There was a difficult weather on Monday over at Comerica Park, but the Boston Red Sox were able to take care of business and earn their 14th win of the season by taking down the Detroit Tigers.

It wasn't smooth, by any means. Young outfielder Roman Anthony was forced to exit the game early with what the club called "right wrist discomfort." After the game, the club shared that Anthony's X-rays came back negative, but he flew back to Boston to get looked at by a specialist.

On top of this, the game was delayed at one point in the eighth inning. It was anything but smooth, but the Red Sox were able to come out on top, 5-4.

Another positive of the day, was the fact that young infielder Marcelo Mayer cleared the air on his back-and-forth with Willson Contreras and made it clear that there is no beef or drama, as transcribed by MLB.com's Ian Browne.

Marcelo Mayer Opened Up About His Comments

“I think things just got taken out of context. I didn’t mean to take a shot at anybody, obviously, especially not to Willson," Browne wrote. "Willson and I have a great relationship. He’s an amazing teammate. He’s a great person. He’s a true veteran of this game and we really respect him in the clubhouse and he helps us a lot.

"He helps the team, he helps the young guys so none of that was directed toward to Willson. It was more of, just, we acknowledge as a team that we’re young, but we have high standards and we expect to win with this team that we have. That’s pretty much it. Classic blown out of proportion, Twitter things.”

The comments certainly did get taken out of context across the baseball world. Contreras was asked about the young roster and acknowledged that it "probably doesn’t help" with a number of young guys who don't have experience playing through slumps. That's not a shot at the young guys, but simply the truth. This Red Sox team is learning as it goes because the roster is so young. The club should be fine in the long run, but there are a handful of guys struggling all at the same time and are working through it.

Mayer responded and essentially said there's no excuse to just blame the young guys and that they're all pros. That's not a shot at Contreras, as Mayer noted, but arguably is a young guy saying youth isn't an excuse for the way the club has been playing. All of these guys are in the majors, regardless of age.

So, there you have it. There's no beef. The Red Sox need to play better as a team, but there's no beef between Contreras and Mayer.

This article first appeared on Boston Red Sox on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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