BOSTON — Roman Anthony more than lived up to the hype that came with being MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 prospect entering the 2025 season, finishing third in the American League’s Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award voting.
Any realistic shot Anthony had to become Boston’s first Rookie of the Year winner since Dustin Pedroia in 2007 likely ended when he suffered a left oblique strain that ended his season on Sept. 2.
Though the Red Sox still made the postseason for the first time since 2021, the loss of Anthony likely played a role in manager Alex Cora’s club being unable to get past the Yankees in the Wild Card Series.
For Anthony to finish in the top three despite only 303 plate appearances was an indicator of how much of an impact he made from the time he made his MLB debut on June 9 through that night at Fenway in early September when he took his final swing of the season.
“The kid, he’s a great at-bat, he’s a great baserunner,” Cora recently told MLB Network. “Defensively, we joked with him, ‘You’re a smart individual, the first play you had at the big league level, you let it go through your wickets, so your standards were very low.’ Then after that, he became a monster in the outfield. He was a plus defender.
“Just a good kid. He understands what wearing that jersey means and [losing him] was a big hit for us. But at the same time, if you look at his season, you know who he is, you know what he’s going to do. Just very happy I’m going to be able to manage him for at least the next two years.”
“Talking to Roman, he’s completely asymptomatic,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told reporters at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas on Monday. He’ll have a fully healthy offseason. He should start swinging in a couple of weeks, which is normal for his offseason.
While there was skepticism the Sox could stay in the playoff race after dealing star slugger Rafael Devers to the Giants on June 15, the offense held up nicely, in large part due to the emergence of Anthony.