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Roman Anthony on missing the final month of his rookie season: ‘It felt like a failure’
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- Roman Anthony on missing the final month of his rookie season: ‘It felt like a failure’
BOSTON — Roman Anthony was the subject of more attention than any rookie in recent Red Sox seasons and his first two months in the big leagues helped justify all the hype.
But an oblique injury suffered in early September forced him to miss the final few weeks of the regular season and the Sox’ Wild Card playoff series, sending him into an emotional tailspin.
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While his teammates battled for a postseason spot, he couldn’t help them. And being sidelined for the most important part of the baseball season only worsened that feeling of helplessness.
“It was awful,” recounted Anthony at Fenway Fest Saturday. “Unfortunately, to me, it felt like a failure because you grind and you grind all year and you finally get up (to the big leagues) and the one goal is, you want to win and you want to get to the playoffs. We unlocked that ability to get to the playoffs.
“Unfortunately, I was hurt and it felt like I was a part of it, but wasn’t at the same time because you feel so isolated. Then when I was in (Fort Myers to rehab the injury) and I was watching from a distance, you always feel that ‘What if?’ factor and you want to imagine yourself being there. It stung for sure, but again for me, I can’t really look at it like that anymore. I just have to take it as a learning lesson and apply that to 2026 and don’t let it happen again.”
Anthony was sidelined on Sept. 2 and came out of the game because of the injury. At the time, though he wanted to remain positive, Anthony knew there was a chance he had played his final game of 2025.
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“Those are always thoughts when anything happens,” he said. “I kind of think the worst. When it happened, it was something that I never felt before. It was more extreme than anything I had ever felt and it was very new to me. I hadn’t gone through an injury, I hadn’t really dealt with anything more than back spasms. I knew then and there that it wasn’t a back spasm and it was pretty severe. I just treid to stay as positive as I could, but when I heard (the prognosis), I wasn’t necessarily surprised.”
Anthony said he didn’t feel fully recovered until almost Thanksgiving. But he maintained that he could have returned to play later in October had the Red Sox advanced beyond the first round.
“Absolutely, in my mind,” he said, “with what we were talking about and what I made clear was that I wanted to (return). Had they felt confident enough that they could hand me the decision....we were on the same page. That was the goal.
“Being in Florida, watching those (playoff) games, I was like, ‘I gotta get out there; this is driving me crazy.’ It was tough, but we’re healthy now, good to go. We’re moving on to this year.”
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