When the Boston Red Sox decided to sit out the big-name free agent market this past offseason, their strategy was built on a simple bet: Roman Anthony is going to be a star. At just 21 years old, the phenom had shown enough in his 2025 debut and a standout World Baseball Classic performance to project as a future middle-of-the-order force by 2026. The hope was that his natural growth could help fill the void left by trading Rafael Devers and losing Alex Bregman to free agency. But now, with Anthony sidelined by a hand injury, that bet is looking risky.
On the latest episode of The Fenway Rundown podcast, MassLive's Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam dug into Anthony's slow start, his injury, and what his absence means for an offense already searching for answers. "That hasn't manifested," McAdam said of the expected offensive breakout. "And that's a huge hole in that lineup because, rightly or wrongly, he was being tasked with shouldering a lot of the offense this year. Bregman left. Devers had been traded. Other than Triston Casas, they really didn't land a big bat this offseason. The feeling was that there would be big growth from Anthony—and there may still be—but we haven't seen it a quarter of the way through."
Before hitting the injured list, Anthony wasn't delivering the damage the Red Sox needed. His Baseball Savant profile still looks impressive on paper—elite exit velocity, high bat speed, a low chase rate, and a solid walk rate. But the results haven't matched the potential. His strikeout rate has climbed to around 25%, and too many of his hard-hit balls have stayed on the ground instead of launching into the air. "He had a three-hit night on Opening Day, but one of those was an infield single," McAdam noted. "He really wasn't driving the ball the way he had been."
The version of Anthony that Red Sox fans are waiting for—the one who terrorized pitchers in the WBC and looked like a future star in late 2025—has been missing. Boston tried moving him around the lineup, giving him time at DH, and experimenting with different roles, but nothing clicked. Now, with his hand injury forcing a pause, the pressure on one young player's shoulders has never been more apparent. For a team that bet its offensive future on his breakout, Anthony's absence leaves a gap that will be tough to fill.