The Biggest Takeaways From Roman Anthony’s Red Sox Debut

The No. 1 prospect in baseball was called up to play against the Rays on Monday.

Roman Anthony batted fifth and played in right field for his first game with the Red Sox. / Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

The Boston Red Sox called up outfielder Roman Anthony, who played in Monday’s 10–8, 11-inning loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. A few thoughts on the debut of the No. 1 prospect in baseball: 

• He is so young—he just turned 21 last month—that three years ago this time he was graduating from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. The Red Sox drafted him in the second round with the 70th pick in 2022.
• Anthony (21 years, 27 days) is the youngest Red Sox player ever to debut with an RBI and a walk. The previous youngest was George “Boomer” Scott in 1966 (22.020).
• Long gone are the days when pitchers challenged rookies to see if they could hit a big league fastball. The Rays showed him tremendous respect. Their pitchers threw him 56% breaking pitches (10 of 18) and only 33% fastballs (six). Most of the pitches were out of the zone (10) and he swung at only two of them, both fastballs that were borderline pitches. He looked very calm in making good swing decisions.
• He hits the ball really, really hard. He hit a line drive 111.2 mph, one of the 20 hardest hit balls by Boston all year. He hit a home run in Triple-A 115.6 mph while averaging more than 95 mph in exit velocity.
• He has an upright setup at the plate with his hands high—a setup reminiscent of Shohei Ohtani and Christian Yelich—that enables him to be a more dangerous hitter on pitches up than down:

Anthony hit a line drive 111.2 mph in the third inning, but was thrown out at first. / MLB

• His load is a little longer than Ohtani and Yelich, neither of whom pull their hands behind them as much as Anthony.

Anthony was 0-for-4 in his debut, but had an RBI and a walk. / MLB

• Anthony made an error in right field with poor footwork on a routine skidding ball, allowing it to get past him. This season in the minors he started only four games in right field—and only 17% of his career starts in the minors. So where do the Red Sox have him make his MLB debut? The toughest right field in baseball, at Fenway Park. I’d rather see Jarren Duran in right and Anthony in left.
• Manager Alex Cora pulled Anthony in the 11th inning for a pinch hitter, having Rob Refsnyder face a lefthander, Ian Seymour. Boston was down two runs with the automatic runner at second. Makes sense on paper. Refsnyder is slugging .558 against lefties. I didn’t love the move. Seymour was making his MLB debut—he was just in the minors with Anthony last week. And Cora had so much confidence in Anthony he batted him fifth, but now he has Anthony looking over his shoulder in the late innings of close games. Let him run.
• Flash back to Aug. 13, 2017, the 15th career game for 20-year-old Rafael Devers. The Red Sox are down 2–1 in the ninth with New York Yankees lefty Aroldis Chapman on the mound. There is no pinch hitter. Devers homers off a pitch 102.8 mph.
• The Red Sox play the Yankees this weekend at the Fens. Let the Roman Empire vs. the Evil Empire begin.

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