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Roman Anthony stays red hot at Triple-A, but Red Sox being cautious due to shoulder injury
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- Roman Anthony stays red hot at Triple-A, but Red Sox being cautious due to shoulder injury
Roman Anthony's recent offensive surge has surely made it look like he's ready for the Red Sox to call him up to the majors . But a minor injury that has limited Anthony defensively is causing the club to proceed with caution for the time being.
Anthony, who had two homers ( including a grand slam ) and had five RBIs in Game 1 of Worcester's doubleheader in Rochester on Thursday afternoon, has not played the field for the WooSox in a full week. Instead, he has exclusively been in the lineup at designated hitter because of a minor injury.
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Anthony has been dealing with minor right shoulder soreness, a team source said Thursday, causing the Red Sox to shut him down from playing the outfield in games for the last week. Anthony continues to play catch and is expected to return to the field "in the near future." The issue doesn't impact Anthony's ability to hit so the Red Sox decided against placing him on the injured list but decided to proceed with caution so that Anthony can play both sides of the ball with no limitation when fully healthy.
Anthony, who is riding a six-game hitting streak and has nine hits (including two doubles and two homers) in his last four games, has seen his counting stats catch up with his underlying metrics in recent days. He's now hitting .300 (15-for-50) with four homers, 12 doubles, 13 walks, a .444 on-base percentage and a 1.064 OPS in 14 games so far this season while barreling balls at an exceptionally high rate.
Still, the Red Sox will want Anthony fully healthy — and back in the swing of things in the outfield — before promoting him to the majors. Before the injury, Anthony logged 40 innings in left field, 25 ⅓ in center field and 18 in right field. It's expected he will get most of his reps in left field in the majors with Jarren Duran likely shifting to center on a full-time basis, Wilyer Abreu remaining in right field and Ceddanne Rafaela eventually taking on a super-utility role that would include defensive reps late in games and starts against certain left-handed pitchers. Anthony's defense lags behind his stellar offensive upside, so the Red Sox want to make sure he continues to develop with the glove before giving him his first shot in the majors. Service time, as always, is a consideration and the Red Sox are surely weighing the short-term gain of promoting Anthony now against the potential of him hitting free agency a year earlier .
"Developmentally, (getting him) a little more comfortable playing in the outfield," chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said last week . "And then also getting him exposed to left-on-left, making sure he can handle that. He has done significant damage vs. right (handed pitchers) and we trust that long-term, it's not going to be an issue, but in the short-term, giving him a chance to get exposed to left-handed pitching is the thing that's front of mind right now."
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With Rafael Devers serving as the full-time DH, the Red Sox obviously aren't going to call Anthony up to get reps at that spot. They'll want Anthony to get everyday reps and not be a platoon player when he does arrive. A move to first base, which some have baselessly speculated about, is not on the table.
"There are certain players, and we're hopeful and optimistic that we have a handful of those, who create their own timeline," Breslow said. "But then, the bulk of guys who get to the big leagues do so because an opportunity arises on the big league club. I think that this will likely be some balance of both these things."
"I don't think we want to waste anything. I think what we want to make sure is that when Roman comes to the big leagues, he's able to step in and be successful and that there's clear opportunity for him to get the runway he'll need as a 20-year-old," Breslow said. "I think there's still some development opportunities he's tackling in Worcester right now. But we are really excited about what Roman has done thus far and what we think he's capable of bringing."
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