Alex Bregman is off the free agent board after leaving Boston to sign a five-year, $175 million contract with the Cubs on Saturday.

Who will now play third base for the 2026 Red Sox?

Boston has had 23-year-old Marcelo Mayer working out at both third base and second base this offseason.

As a rookie last season, Mayer made 28 of his 35 starts at third base. His other seven starts came at second. He was promoted from Triple-A Worcester when Boston placed Bregman on the injured list May 24 with a right quad strain. The left-handed hitter started mostly at third base against right-handed starters when Bregman missed 43 games from May 24-July 11.

The sure-handed Mayer is considered Boston’s long-term shortstop. But chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has committed to keeping Trevor Story as his shortstop this season instead of moving the veteran to second base to open shortstop for Mayer immediately. That leaves Mayer as either Boston’s second baseman or third baseman depending on how the roster shakes out.

With Bregman gone, it’s looking more likely that Mayer will play third base.

The options on the free agent and trade markets are dwindling. The Red Sox could target free agent shortstop Bo Bichette to play second base. Meanwhile, free agent third baseman Eugenio Suárez, who hit 49 homers for the Diamondbacks and Mariners last year, remains available. But the 34-year-old would represent a significant downgrade from Bregman defensively. Suárez finished with minus-six defensive runs saved in 1,347 ⅔ innings at third base last year.

Mayer has the ability to play plus defense at third. He finished with 0 defensive runs saved in 248 ⅔ innings there last year. But the more reps he receives there, the better he should get. Most of his pro career has been spent at shortstop. He played just 48 ⅓ innings at third base in the minors compared to 2,254 innings at shortstop.

“It’s not easy going into an offseason kind of getting reps at every position,” Mayer said at Fenway Fest on Saturday. “I believe that every position requires different traits, different skills, different angles that you need to master. Obviously, I’m doing everything I can taking reps at third and second base and I feel really good at both. So wherever they need me is where I’m going to play. I’m going to do my best out there.”

He added that playing third base is completely different than playing second base.

“Second base, you’re doing everything backwards,” Mayer said. “Third base, you’re pretty much playing shortstop with less range, kind of quicker reflexes. So yeah, I think they’re just different skills that you need to hone in on to be able to be great at that position.”

Mayer spent the final 58 games of the 2025 season on the IL with a wrist injury that required surgery. He expects to be ready to fully participate in workouts once spring training begins.

“I’m pretty much doing full baseball activity, like a normal ramp-up, as I would for a regular season going into spring training,” Mayer said. “So I feel like I’m in a good spot.”

Mayer’s injury history is another concern if he replaces Bregman. It’s fair to question whether the Sox can rely on him to be available for the majority of a 162-game season.

The Red Sox asked him to put on weight this offseason to try to make him more durable. He has had issues staying healthy throughout his career so far, never playing more than 91 games in any season in the minors and majors.

“It was one of the main goals I set for myself going into the offseason,” Mayer said. “I weighed in at like 218 right now, which is by far the heaviest I’ve ever weighed in my life. I feel great, stronger and faster than ever. So I feel like my body’s in a really good spot.”

He’s up from 208 pounds at the end of last season.

“Moving well,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Saturday at Fenway Fest. “Actually, Trevor was surprised the way he’s moving. Fast. It seems like his offseasons, the last two or three, he’s always rehabbing or trying to catch up. Not this year. I had a conversation with him toward the end of the season and he basically said, ‘I’m ready, I’m ready.’ And we’ll see, we’ll see how it works out. But the kid, he’s a good baserunner, he’s a good defender, he can hit the ball out of the ballpark. Obviously there’s a few things offensively that he needs to improve, but that’s everybody. And I like the player. I like him a lot. I don’t think he’s afraid of this environment. He actually likes it. So just go out there and play in spring training.”

Another question mark is whether Mayer is ready to be an everyday starter who faces both righties and lefties?

Cora typically avoided batting Mayer against lefty starters and relievers last year, like he does with most all his young left-handed hitters. Mayer went 4-for-26 (.154) against southpaws while starting five games against them. He was 13-for-48 (.271) with a .300 on-base percentage, .458 slugging percentage and .758 OPS in 50 plate appearances against lefties for Triple-A Worcester before his promotion.

The Red Sox faced left-handed starters in 28% of games in 2025.

“I think he can play every day,” Breslow said at the GM Meetings in early November. “I certainly wouldn’t want to set limits on what he’s capable of doing. He hasn’t and that’s something we of course need to be mindful of.”

Cora said while discussing Mayer, “Facing lefties in spring training is going to make them better. If we don’t face them, we’ll figure out. … So just try to get them against lefties. Same with Roman (Anthony), same with Wilyer (Abreu), same with Jarren (Duran). That’s something that, like I said, we’ll talk with Bres and see where we’re at.”

CRAWFORD COUNTY —Law enforcement are investigating another deadly shooting involving a Kansas teen.

Just before 9p.m. Friday, police along with first responder units from Pittsburg Fire Department and Crawford County EMS, were dispatched to a shooting at Schlanger Park, 725 E 6th Street in Pittsburg, according to a media release. First responders found that an adult male had been shot and had subsequently died as a result of his injuries.

The victim, who was identified as 18-year-old Adam Basauri, of Girard, was pronounced deceased at the scene. Basauri’s body was sent to Kansas City for an autopsy.

The scene was secured and investigators with the Pittsburg Police Department responded to assist with the investigation. Witnesses on scene advised the suspect had fled the scene in a vehicle. Witnesses were transported to the police department to be interviewed while the search for the suspect was ongoing.

At approximately 9:46 p.m. the suspect and suspect’s vehicle were located in Arma, Kansas, by deputies with the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office.

The suspect, who was identified as a 17-year-old juvenile, was taken into custody and transported to the Pittsburg Police Department for questioning. The juvenile suspect’s vehicle was secured and towed to the Pittsburg Police Department to be processed.

After interviewing the witnesses’ investigators were able to determine that a brief altercation took place between Basauri and the juvenile suspect. During the altercation, the suspect shot Basauri.

As a result, the 17-year-old juvenile, of Pittsburg, was placed under arrest. Juvenile Intake responded and processed the juvenile suspect. The juvenile suspect was transported to the Southeast KS Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Girard. He is being held on a requested charge of murder in the second degree.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates danced their way to a record-setting seventh U.S. Figure Skating title on Saturday night, showcasing their trademark creativity, athleticism and precision in their final competition before the Milan Cortina Olympics.

Now, the countdown is on for the moment they have waited for the past four years.

“We like to build momentum through the season,” Bates said, “and it’s a great feeling going into a big event knowing you skated well the previous event. So we’re going to roll with that momentum into Milan.”

Chock and Bates have dominated ice dance ever since they finished fourth at the Beijing Games, arguably the most disappointing and frustrating placement for any Olympian. They have won the past three world titles, the past three gold medals at the Grand Prix Final, and they have nobody within sight of them when it comes to competing against fellow Americans.

Performing a flamenco-styled dance to a version of the Rolling Stones hit “Paint It Black” from the dystopian sci-fi Western drama “Westworld,” Chock and Bates produced a season-best free skate inside Enterprise Center and finished with 228.87 points.

Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik were second with 213.65 points and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko were third with 206.95, making those two pairs the likely choices to join Chock and Bates on the American squad for the Winter Games.

There wasn’t much drama in the dance competition.

At least for the top step.

Yet sometimes the winning programs aren’t necessarily the ones that win over the crowd. And while Oona Brown and Gage Brown only finished fifth, the sister-brother duo — former world junior champions — earned the first standing ovation of the night for their moody, creative and almost cinematic program set to selections from the film “The Godfather.”

“I think that was one of the best — if not the best — performances we’ve had,” Gage Brown said afterward.

The Browns ended a stretch in which several couples taking the ice made some kind of significant mistake, whether it was a skater stumbling to the ice, someone getting out of synch with their twizzles, or some other calamitous misfortune.

Then it was a parade of near-perfect programs, each couple trying to upstage the previous one.

Emily Bratti and Ian Somerville were the first to knock the Brown siblings from first place, then reigning bronze medalists Caroline Green and Michael Parsons took over first place with their program, set to “Escalate” by Tsar B and “Son of Nyx” by Hozier.

Carreira and Ponomarenko, the U.S. silver medalists the past two years, knew a podium spot would probably earn them a spot on the Olympic team when they took the ice. And they delivered with a sharp program in which they seemed to channel the feeling and the characters from the 2006 psychological thriller film “Perfume: The Story of a Murder.”

“We had a bit of a rocky start to this season,” said Carreira, who was born in Canada but receiver her U.S. citizenship in November, making her eligible to compete at the Olympics. “I’m happy we got our act together and delivered a good performance here.”

It wound up being good enough for bronze.

That’s because the 23-year-old Zingas, who made the difficult witch from singles to dance about four years ago, and the 24-year-old Kolesnik quickly assumed the top spot with a program set to music by Sergei Prokofiev from the ballet of “Romeo and Juliet.”

“It hasn’t been an easy journey,” Zingas said, “and I think our unique approach to this season, and our unique style on the ice, really helped us, and it’s really an emotional moment to be sitting here.”

Zingas and Kolesnik only held the top spot for about four minutes — the length of the free skate by Chock and Bates.

It almost seemed to be a forgone conclusion that they would win Saturday night. But the real pressure now begins: Chock and Bates finished eighth at the 2014 Olympics, ninth four years later, and came in fourth at the Winter Games in 2022.

Yes, they helped the Americans win team gold in Beijing, but even that was somewhat tainted. They never got a medal ceremony there because of a long investigation into Russian doping, which pushed their presentation all the way to the 2024 Summer Games.

They would love to help the U.S. win another team gold. But their target is unquestionably the ice dance title itself.

“It’s going to be a lot more of what it has been — we know what to do, we have our plan and we’re executing,” Chock said. “We don’t plan on deviating from it. We’re going to stick to it. Trust ourselves, trust our team and do what we know to do.”

My New Favorite Olympian will introduce you to Team USA’s most inspiring athletes and the causes they champion. New episodes hosted by Olympic figure skating medalist Adam Rippon and NBC’s Chase Cain will drop January 15. And don’t miss My New Favorite Paralympian beginning March 5!