Marcelo Mayer avoids demotion, as Red Sox send teammate down

The Boston Red Sox have decided to keep Marcelo Mayer in the big leagues for the time being, opting to send down another infielder instead.

David Hamilton was informed after Thursday's win over the Tampa Bay Rays that he's being optioned to Triple-A Worcester, MassLive's Chris Cotillo reported Thursday night. This comes after rumors had started to swirl that the 22-year-old Mayer would join fellow young teammate Kristian Campbell with the WooSox.

Mayer hasn't homered since June 18 and had gone five games without driving in a run until Thursday night, when he smacked a double to left-center to tie the game in the seventh inning. It's unclear whether Thursday's big win, which has the Red Sox now just half a game behind the Rays for the second AL Wild Card, helped make Mayer's case to stay in Boston.

But even at an 89 OPS+ through his first 114 major-league plate appearances, Mayer is still markedly outperforming Hamilton (40 OPS+) at the plate. So it's a promising development for the talented young infielder that he got to stay in the majors.

Ultimately, Hamilton's demotion was to make room for the returning Alex Bregman, who was reinstated from the Injured List as part of the Red Sox' most recent transactions.