3 days ago
Roman Anthony collects first RBI in whirlwind MLB debut
BOSTON — As Roman Anthony waited in the Triple-A Worcester clubhouse ahead of a four-hour bus ride to Lehigh Valley, Penn., on Monday, he called his dad. Less than a half hour later, manager Chad Tracey walked into the clubhouse and had an announcement. Red Sox outfielder Wilyer Abreu was headed to the injury list with an oblique strain and Anthony was headed to Boston to make his much-awaited major-league debut.
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'He came out and just said, 'Hey, you're going to the big leagues,'' Anthony said on Monday sitting in the Fenway Park dugout, surrounded by a throng of media. 'From there on out, it's kind of been a little bit of a blur.'
Anthony called his dad back, relayed a quick message, packed his bags and hit the road for the 45-mile drive east from Worcester to Boston. He hit the road shortly before 4 p.m. and the No. 1 prospect in baseball was scheduled to be in Boston's lineup that night for his big-league debut.
'There wasn't too much traffic,' Anthony quipped. 'A little bit of a short notice, but better than being on the bus to Lehigh Valley.'
Arriving for his big league debut!
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— Red Sox (@ June 9, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Batting fifth and playing right field in Boston's 10-8 extra-innings loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Anthony went 0-for-4, picking up a key RBI with a groundout in the ninth inning that was part of a two-run rally that allowed the Red Sox to tie the game at 7. According to Red Sox PR, Anthony became the youngest Red Sox player with an RBI since Rafael Devers (20) in 2017 and the youngest with an RBI in his MLB debut since Luis Alvarado (19) in 1968. In his first three at-bats, Anthony had a fly out, a liner back to the mound, a strikeout looking and a walk. In the fifth inning, he made an error as a ground ball went under his glove, allowing a run to score. He was lifted for pinch-hitter Rob Refsnyder in the 11th.
The drumbeat for Anthony's promotion has grown steadily louder all season. Anthony is the youngest hitter in the International League, having turned 21 just last month. He hit .288 with a .914 OPS and 10 homers in 58 games, including a 497-foot grand slam on Saturday, the longest home run by any hitter at any level of professional baseball this season. Anthony led the minors with 32 barreled balls.
Roman Anthony just MELTED a baseball 🤯🤯
497 ft | 115.6 mph for MLB's No. 1 prospect with the @WooSox!
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) June 8, 2025
'The kid has done an amazing job throughout player development, just getting ready for this moment,' Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. 'We're excited. It's a big day for the organization. … It's not the perfect way of doing it (with Abreu on the IL), but he's here.'
Anthony has always been mature for his age, and it's shown as he's risen through the Red Sox system while simultaneously becoming the No. 1 prospect in the game. He's handled the media and fan attention with poise.
Surrounding by four TV cameras and over two dozen reporters on Monday, Anthony fielded 10 minutes of questions roughly an hour before first pitch.
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'I think always being the youngest guy in the clubhouse at every level has definitely helped,' Anthony said. 'Being the youngest of the three at home and growing up around my brother and his friends, trying to hang out with the older group of guys. I've always just enjoyed leaning on the older guys.'
The spotlight has followed Anthony since he was drafted in the second round in 2022 by the Red Sox, a compensation pick for when starter Eduardo Rodríguez signed with Detroit following the 2021 season. The intense attention has never bothered Anthony.
'I think (my heart) was racing more a few weeks ago when I heard Marcelo was going up,' Anthony said of his closest friend on the team, fellow top prospect Marcelo Mayer.
Anthony's debut had an eerily similar feeling to Mayer's. Just 17 days ago, Mayer debuted when third baseman Alex Bregman landed on the injured list with a quad strain. Mayer had a frenzied arrival at Fenway Park in between games of a doubleheader. A natural shortstop, he'd played just six minor-league games at third base prior to his big-league debut. He was slotted at third base right away and has only started at the hot corner since.
Anthony arrived on short notice on Monday when the oblique injury Abreu suffered over the weekend in New York turned out to require an IL stint. Cora had initially hoped it would be a minor injury. For now, Cora said he prefers to keep Ceddanne Rafaela in center and Jarren Duran in left. That means Anthony, who played just four games in right field at Triple A this season, will see time in right. This season, he'd played 29 games in left, 11 in center and 14 at designated hitter, mainly after a shoulder injury in April.
Prior to the game, Anthony strolled out to right field with outfield coach Kyle Hudson, who pointed out the nuances of Fenway's right field with its quirky angles. Anthony's error in the fifth came on a routine grounder that he didn't get in front of, but rather tried to field from the side.
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'I've played there quite a bit in the minor leagues, obviously more center, more left as of recently,' Anthony said of right field. 'But it doesn't matter to me. I'm here and I'm going to try to help this team win, no matter where that is.'
Because Worcester was set to play in Lehigh Valley this week, the equipment truck had already hit the road before the team bus, meaning much of Anthony's equipment was already on its way to Pennsylvania before he got the call-up. He wasn't using his original glove and had to wear a teammate's cleats. He did have one of his own bats, however.
Boston's top three prospects — Anthony, Mayer and Kristian Campbell, who debuted on Opening Day — are now all in the Red Sox's big-league lineup. On Monday, they batted fifth through seventh in the order. Since 1981, the only other games in which the Red Sox started a trio of position players age 22 or younger came in 2010 with the much less heralded trio of Lars Anderson, Ryan Kalish and Yamaico Navarro.
'One of the things that I truly believe is going to happen, we should play with energy every single day, because we are probably one of the youngest teams in the big leagues,' Cora said.
The Red Sox's current young trio has the full attention of the Boston faithful. Like Mayer during his debut, Anthony received a standing ovation before his first at-bat. The whirlwind day didn't unfold exactly way Anthony imagined his big-league debut would go. It never works that way. But with Anthony's arrival, Boston's youth movement has commenced. Baseball's No. 1 prospect is in the majors and now he's ready to show who he is.
'It's something you kind of don't even really know how it's supposed to feel,' Anthony said. 'It was shocking and it was amazing.'
