Roman Anthony’s injury exposes pressure Red Sox placed on one player | The Fenway Rundown

Before going on the IL with a hand injury, Anthony wasn’t doing the damage the Red Sox needed from him. His Baseball Savant profile remains impressive in theory — elite average exit velocity, high bat speed, a low chase rate, a strong walk rate. But the results haven’t followed. His strikeout rate has climbed to around 25%, and too many of his hard-hit balls have been on the ground rather than in the air.

“He had a three-hit night on Opening Day, but one of those was an infield single,” McAdam noted. “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 pitching in the WBC and looked like a future star in late-2025 — has been absent. The Red Sox moved him around the lineup, tried him at DH, experimented with him in the leadoff spot and in the three-hole. Nothing clicked into gear in a sustained way before the hand injury ended any further experimentation for now.

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As for the timeline, Anthony went on the IL on a Monday, and if he serves the minimum, he would be eligible to return around Friday in Atlanta. As of the most recent practice, he was still wearing a wrap on his hand, and a return date remains uncertain. Both Cotillo and McAdam believe he’ll travel with the team on the upcoming road trip, and barring any setbacks, a return sometime during that stretch looks reasonable.

The hope is that the hand injury forces a short reset and that Anthony comes back with some renewed energy. He did show some signs of life in the two days before getting hurt — a three-hit game that offered a glimpse of what he can be when things click. But the broader concern remains: this is a 21-year-old being asked to carry an offense at the major league level, and that was always going to be a difficult ask.

Almost every well-regarded prospect goes through a rough patch when they reach the big leagues. As Cotillo pointed out on the podcast, even the best young players tend to struggle when they arrive — it’s the nature of the jump from Triple-A to the majors. The gap in competition is real, and it shows up differently for every player.

The Red Sox can hope Anthony figures it out quickly. They may not have the luxury of being patient. With Trevor Story slumping badly, Jarren Duran still below .200, and the offense ranking among the worst in baseball, Anthony’s eventual return — and whether he can produce when he comes back — might be one the most important storylines for the rest of the season.

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