Women moving closer to playing in MLB
Just call her Monet Davis.
Melissa Mayeux, a 16-yearold French shortstop, on Sunday became the first female player to be included in Major League Baseball’s international registration list. She could be the first woman signed to an MLB team when she becomes eligible on July 2.
The international registration list is for prospects who meet age and citizenship requirements in places that aren’t subject to the draft (i.e., outside of the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico). While the list is open to all players who meet these criteria, those included are typically serious prospects.
The consensus seems to be that Mayeux is unlikely to be signed — but as MLB.com’s Lindsay Berra notes, her inclusion on the list “solidifies her status as a legitimate player,” paving the way for her to pursue a baseball career in college and beyond.
Mayeux is currently a member of France’s U-18 junior national team and its senior national softball team. And she’s caught the eye of Mike McClellan, MLB’s director of international game development.
Mayeux is “a legitimate shortstop who makes all the plays and is very smooth and fluid in the field,” he told Berra. “She swings the bat really well and is fearless.”
“Fearless” is a word commonly used to describe another young baseball phenom redefining what it means to throw like a girl: Mo’ne Davis. The hard-throwing teen made a name for herself last summer, overpowering the boys in Little League with her 70-m.p.h. fastball and unflinching confidence and grace.
After Davis became the first girl to toss a shutout in the Little League World Series, many wondered, albeit prematurely, if she could eventually become the first woman to play in MLB. That likely won’t come to pass. Davis’s first love is basketball, and she’s apparently even better on the hardwood than she is on the mound.
But you could very well argue that Davis is the reason Mayeux or other female players could end up on an MLB roster in the future. She’s almost single-handedly transformed the narrative about women in baseball, changing the minds of scouts who previously couldn’t fathom the idea of a woman in the majors. As Bradley Woodrum notes at The Hardball Times, Davis, along with high-school knuckleballer Chelsea Baker, have forced us to confront the previously hypothetical question of female players, to the point at which a woman in MLB seems increasingly inevitable.
With Mayeux, women in baseball take one step closer to that goal. If she does get signed, it likely will be when she’s closer to 18. If she goes unsigned, she can play in college in the U.S. and continue to build toward that ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tampa Bay’s Chris Archer won his sixth straight decision, allowing three hits over eight innings in a 4-3 victory against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night. Brandon Guyer and Joey Butler had RBI singles for the Rays, with a wild pitch and passed ball setting up both runs off knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (3-7). The Rays scored a third run off the Toronto starter with help from centre-fielder Kevin Pillar‘s throwing error and Asdrubal Cabrera hit a solo homer off Steve Delabar for a 4-2 lead in the eighth. Edwin Encarnacion’s solo homer off Brad Boxberger, who earned his 19th save, trimmed Toronto’s deficit to one run in the ninth. Archer (9-4) improved to 3-0 against Toronto this season and held them hitless Tuesday until Dioner Navarro homered with one out in the fifth. end. There will be opportunity for Mayeux to showcase her game on the international stage, as she could compete for one of 25 roster spots on France’s national team in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
If a woman in MLB is now an inevitability, a French woman in MLB might not be far behind.