Why aren’t Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer in the majors yet?

It’s a straightforward question that fans have been asking all year but has become more pressing with each passing day.

The top Red Sox prospects, who rank No. 1 and 8 on Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects list, respectively, have been dominating at Triple-A Worcester all season. Meanwhile, the big league team entered Wednesday 25-25 and with multiple holes in the lineup.

The simplest explanation is the Red Sox don’t have an obvious place for them on the big league roster, but manager Alex Cora is already on record saying it wouldn’t necessarily take an injury for the two to earn a spot. Prior to the second game of the season in Texas, Cora told reporters that “they’re going to push us to make decisions.”

With Anthony batting .322 with a .970 OPS and some of the best underlying metrics in the minor leagues, what else does he need to do? Cora was posed the question point blank on Wednesday.

“That’s a great question, I understand where you’re coming from, but we are where we’re at,” Cora told MassLive’s Christopher Smith. “Right now we’ve got some guys here that are playing great baseball, right? And we understand that at one point, I do believe they’re going to be part of this, but as of right now we haven’t made that decision.”

Though Anthony has performed better overall through the first seven weeks of the season, Mayer arguably has the cleaner path to the majors. Trevor Story, Boston’s starting shortstop, has been mired in an abysmal slump and is batting .232 with a .616 OPS. He’s especially struggled recently, batting .135 with only one extra-base hit over the past month, and even his normally reliable defensive numbers have dipped.

Things have gotten to a point where Story has begun batting seventh in the lineup, below recent Triple-A call-up Nick Sogard.

“Just felt like that was the best lineup for us,” Cora said of Story batting seventh.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox have gotten little to no production at first base since Triston Casas and Romy Gonzalez both went down due to injury, and after a hot start to the season Kristian Campbell’s production has also fallen off a cliff. Though Mayer and Anthony are not considered candidates to play first, Campbell has recently begun doing pregame work at the position, suggesting the possibility that Mayer could take over as the everyday second baseman while Campbell plays first.

Mayer, who is batting .262 while ranking second in all of minor league baseball with 41 RBI, started at second in Worcester for the fourth time in five games on Wednesday after previously playing just five games there over the first month and a half.

Anthony would be tougher to fit into the big league puzzle. The simplest approach would be to either bench or demote Ceddanne Rafaela — who usually bats ninth — but he has also been one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball and has made strides at the plate since his rookie year. Jarren Duran got off to a slow start but has really turned it on over the past week, and Wilyer Abreu has been one of the best all-around players in MLB.

For now the Red Sox are content to go with who they have, but Anthony and Mayer have both done everything in their power to push themselves into the conversation. If things keep going the way they are, they could start making it tough on the Red Sox to justify keeping them in Triple-A.

Romy suffers setback

When Casas went down with a season-ending injury, Gonzalez shifted from his usual role as a utility player to become Boston’s new starting first baseman. But soon after taking over he suffered an injury on the base paths of his own and has been out since May 8 with a left quad contusion.

Originally the hope was that Gonzalez wouldn’t miss much time, but now it appears he could be out longer than anticipated.

“He’s not bouncing back the way we wanted,” Cora said on Wednesday. “When he started running he felt it again, so he’s going to take longer than expected.”

With Casas and Gonzalez both on the shelf, the Red Sox have tried to get by with Abraham Toro and Sogard manning the position. Toro has started five games at first base since Gonzalez’s injury and Sogard has now started eight, including each of the three games against the Mets.

Toro is 4 for 21 (.190) with a double and a home run in those games, and Sogard entered Wednesday 6 for 27 (.222) with one double.

Looking for another option, the Red Sox have begun introducing Campbell to first base, a position he has never played professionally. Campbell has done regular pregame drills at first base since Friday but has not progressed to a point where Cora says he’s comfortable playing him there just yet.

There is also no indication the Red Sox will shift Rafael Devers to first, something the slugger has come out vocally against.

In addition to Gonzalez, Cora provided several other injury updates prior to first pitch.

Right-hander Richard Fitts (right pectoral strain) was scheduled to begin a rehab assignment in Worcester on Thursday, though that will be pushed back after the WooSox postponed the game ahead of the day’s forecasted rain. Right-hander Kutter Crawford (right patellar tendinopathy) is scheduled to throw three innings of live batting practice on either Thursday or Friday, and right-hander Tanner Houck (right flexor pronator strain) is due to resume throwing by the end of the week after being shut down following his most recent outing on May 12.

Masataka Yoshida (right shoulder labral repair) also resumed his throwing program on Wednesday, but the outfielder is back to square one starting at 60 feet after previously working his way up to 120.

Extra innings

After being ejected on Tuesday night, Cora said he spoke with Mike Hill, MLB’s senior vice president of on-field operations. Asked if he’d received a fine, Cora said “we’re good,” adding “he called me, asked me about the graduation and how are the kids.” … Casas has been back at Fenway Park over the past few days. The first baseman is out for the season after suffering a ruptured patellar tendon but Cora said Casas has been in good spirits. … With rain in the forecast there is concern around the team that Thursday’s series opener against Baltimore could be postponed and a doubleheader played on Friday. Asked about the possibility, Cora said he hasn’t heard anything either way, adding “let’s play today and then they’ll decide what we do tomorrow.”