Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony exited yesterday’s game due to soreness in his left oblique. He’ll be placed on the 10-day injured list, manager Alex Cora revealed in a radio appearance on WEEI today. Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reported not long beforehand that Anthony was likely to be placed on the IL and that the Sox would recall utilityman Nick Sogard from Triple-A Worcester to take his spot on the roster.
Cora didn’t provide a timetable for Anthony specifically, speaking instead in general terms while pointing out that oblique strains often take four to six weeks to heal. Obviously, there’s a chance that Anthony’s regular season is over.
It’s terrible timing for the Red Sox (not that there’s a “good” time to lose a player of Anthony’s caliber). Boston is 2.5 games back of the division-leading Blue Jays in the American League East. They’re veritable playoff locks by now, but the Red Sox have a real chance of moving to the top of the division and potentially securing a bye through the first round of postseason play. Attempting to do so without Anthony will make that task far more daunting.
Since making his big league debut on June 9, Anthony has been Boston’s best offensive performer. Through 303 plate appearances, he’s hitting .292/.396/.463 with eight homers, 18 doubles, a triple, a 13.2% walk rate and four stolen bases (in five tries). The resulting 138 wRC+ indicates that Anthony has been 38% better than an average hitter at the plate. Among Red Sox hitters, only newcomer Nathaniel Lowe has a better mark, and that comes in a sample of just 41 plate appearances.
Further complicating matters for the Sox is that Anthony will join Wilyer Abreu on the injured list. He’s been out since mid-August with a calf strain and doesn’t appear close to a return. Cora said just last night that Abreu has yet to even resume running (link via the Boston Globe’s Tim Healey). That leaves Jarren Duran and Ceddanne Rafaela in two of the three outfield spots, and a rotating cast of characters to mix and match in the third. Masataka Yoshida, Rob Refsnyder, Nate Eaton and the aforementioned Sogard are among the possibilities. Yoshida has played the field just four times this year after offseason shoulder surgery.
It’s possible Anthony heals abnormally quickly and is back on the field before season’s end, but based purely on the history of oblique injuries in recent years, it’s far likelier that he won’t be ready to return until the postseason is underway. The Red Sox will have to hope that they’re still alive when Anthony is cleared to return, and even then, he might need to jump right back into the mix after a lengthy layoff and without the benefit of a true minor league rehab assignment. At the very least, they’ll hope to have Abreu back by that point, but Boston’s outfield look far less formidable now than it did three weeks ago.
Just keeping my fingers crossed that the Red Sox are still playing baseball when he’s ready to come back.
Probably not. Cora just announced 4 to 6 weeks. Maybe he’ll be the exception.
well, perhaps if fortunes lead them to the ALCS he has a chance of returning then
Being that he is 21, maybe he will heal quickly.
Suit, I just hope they don’t rush him.
Top important to the long term.future of the franchise to push him early
Wilyer also not close. What a disaster
Great young player. Get well soon. He’s a keeper. Unlike Betts and Devers, for whatever reason, only Boston Management knows that answer.
Did you forget the sox offered Betts several reasonable long term deals? He turned them all down…and are you really putting the Devers situation all on management?.thats bs
The Devers situation is 1000% on management.
They offered Betts “reasonable” deals if you expected him to take a massive hometown discount. They were always a year late on their deals. Offering him like 200MM when he wanted 300MM, 300MM when he wanted more – and proved he was worth it.
Joemo, the Devers situation is almost certainly on Devers.
The franchise was criticized for years for showing disinterest in moving Devers to 1B or DH. Then, the moment they try, he resisted and pouted. Then, when injury called for him to man 1B, he went outright petulant.
Add two and two together dude – the evidence strongly points to Devers being a possessive baby about his position, meaning there was nothing anyone could do to smoothly handle it. It was a bad answer through every door, be it suffering continued poor defense at 3B, dealing with the fallout of moving him to another position, or dealing with the talent loss of moving him to another.
I suppose it’s easy to troll franchises on a very limited evidence basis, but facts and logic are what they are. Whether you’re reasonable enough to admit the likely truth or not, it is what it is.
“The Devers situation is 1000%”…A player somewhere is asked to change his playing position dozens of times every season. A change in playing positions is just another part of the game.
It’s up to the player to decide if he wants to create a stink around this or just follow the terms of their baseball contracts, which do not guarantee them any particular playing position.
Joemo, I d completely disagree. Betts made it clear early on he was going year to year and agreed to a long term deal with LA before free agency because of the pandemic. Devers? none of it in my view is on management who was balancing things. What happens if Bregman signed with Detroit? I blame Devers’ agent who should have talked to Devers early on to explain things.
Ayy let’s talk about devers!
The team said he’s not playing the field because his defense is so bad.
Then midseason, they want him to learn a new position.
How on earth does that make any sense?
When they signed Bregman, they should have told Devers that he will primarily be DH but that he should keep working at 3B, maybe even start working 1B in to give them more roster flexibility.
The front office made their bed, now they get to lie in it.
He didn’t pout. He was holding the front office accountable.
Devers was being a baby about his position? Weird how he’s doing whatever is needed in SF, where the team didn’t consistently treat him like dirt. Remember the past few years when the team did absolutely nothing in the off-season or trade deadline to help the team compete? This isn’t just a simple ‘oh Devers should do whatever the team asks’, because in general sure. But when you take into account how poorly the team has been ran, it’s not so simple.
MLB – Devers defense is ” SOOO BAD” that they say he’s not playing the field and he’s only DHing. Then they say oh lol, jk, learn this brand new position midseason.
How does that make any sense?
The time to learn a new position would have been after they signed Bregman. Not middle of the season. They should have planned ahead
Dewey – the team said his defense is so bad that he’s not playing the field again, and then want him to learn a new position mid season. How does that make sense? Isn’t his defense awful? Why not have him work on it when the team doesn’t need someone to fill in right away?
Even in the local softball league, no one gets a guaranteed position. And you play where you needed. I’m not blaming anyone, but in the real world, you usually go where they tell you.
Teams in your local softball league would also have had their best bat practicing at some defensive positions to keep his bat in the lineup and not clog up the DH spot when they already have a full-time DH (Yoshida).
“The front office made their bed, now they get to lie in it.”
You realize the front office is thrilled they traded Devers, right? The disconnect is unreal.
He was an overpaid, entitled, me first baby, and now he’s the Giants problem. They’ll be doing their best to move off him this offseason,
Teams in your local softball team would have told him to go home because he was an entitled, me first, baby.
Joemo, injuries happen warranting changed. His bat would always play. It’s not like he was playing for a new contract. Team players do what is best for all and his pouting like a spoiled child was why he’s now playing 3k miles away. I’m glad he’s hitting again but I’m happy he’s off this team. He became a cancer in my view as he was not a good example for the youngsters
But if his defense is that bad, wouldn’t you want to work to improve it? It makes no sense to say that his defense is so bad that he’s DH only, and then ask him to learn a new position in the middle of the season. None.
The Red Sox FO created this situation to make Devers seem like the bad guy. It’s blatantly obvious to most people.
He’s not playing for a new contract or anything in SF and he just played 3B when Chapman got ejected. Crazy what happens when your front office isn’t trying to run you out of town
Joemo, he improved but was still the worst 3rd baseman in the majors as recently as last year. Circumstances warranted him going to first to see if it could work out when Casas got hurt again. His refusal to even try was intolerable. I’ve often posted that Sox management’s decision to never try him at first in spring training was telling on his inability to be successful but I’m now of the belief that he probably said no to that as well.
The team told him he’s not playing defense and then scrambles at the last minute to try to have him learn a new position because they can’t do their job and get a 1B replacement when Casas goes down – happened last year as well.
The whole situation is avoided if when Bregman is signed, they still have Devers working on his defense. Instead, they told him he’s DH only. Straight from Devers, Cora, etc. Having Devers as the full-time DH with Yoshida on the roster was a horrible decision – unless….
The Red Sox FO wanted him gone, and they sure got their wish. They didn’t want to try to make it work out, he doesn’t fit in whatever model the Driveline guys try to push.
He has no problem playing wherever for SF, wonder why that is….
Joemo is right.., “was” worth it.
Joemo-Devers played for us 9 years. There is no more ‘working to improve it’. He can’t play 3rd. It’s over.
“He has no problem playing wherever for SF, wonder why that is…”
===============
He learned his lesson and doesn’t want another team to sour on him?
@Joemo
Then midseason, they want him to learn a new position. How on earth does that make any sense?
Easy. Denver’s was upset that he wasn’t playing the field, and the regular 1B got injured. It looked like the ideal solution. He didn’t want to be a DH. The team needed a 1B. He refused to make it work, and even made it worse with his refusal. I’m sure he would have been happier if they traded for another 1B without even considering him as an option. He didn’t mind being a butcher at 3B (worst in the MLB), so don’t even try to say that learning the position on the fly was his concern.
Styme – do you have any idea of how the situation actually happened? From everything that has been made public, the team told Devers that he would no longer be playing the field. Devers goes into full-time DH mode. Cora says he’s the DH as well, he’s not playing the field.
As I’ve said multiple times, the move here was to not make Devers the full-time DH but to have him continue to play the field in case of injury, but also to give the roster some flexibility. He could have been the backup 1B/3B instead of Toro. That would have been the smart move.
He also actually improved defensively if you actually watched him play the position. He was playing really well at 3B last year when Story was healthy – and then he had the revolving door of shortstops which doesn’t help a poor defender.
The team told him that he wouldn’t be playing the field because his defense is bad. That’s not the right approach to take with any player. You tell them to work on it. Because you never know when you’re going to need them to play the field.
But also as I said earlier, the Sox FO were looking for a way to rid themselves of Devers. They got their wish. Thank God they got Harrison and Hicks, they really helped get that W tonight huh.
Lol an out of shape baby. Goid riddance to Raffy.
The Red Sox chose a to bring in a GG 3B. That deal was a long time in the making, and Devers knew it was inevitable. He was such a baby about the whole thing. Did he really think they were going to play Bregman out of position and still have a pathetic defensive 3B? He couldn’t wait to stick it to his team when Casas got hurt. That’s why he is no longer playing for the Red Sox.
And I don’t care who they got in return (so far, not much!). Getting rid of that albatross of a contract and using it to extend Roman Anthony and (P. Tolle?) was well worth it.
“As I’ve said multiple times, the move here was to not make Devers the full-time DH but to have him continue to play the field in case of injury”
====================
With Devers history of shoulder problems, the best move was to move him to DH until if and when a need arose for him to play in the field.
Joe- I don’t remember the team ever stating that Devers defense was so bad that he would never play the field again. I believe they told him he would be strictly DH, but don’t think they called him out on his defense.
Breslow even admitted he did not handle it as well as he could have, so management was far from perfect in that situation, but Devers could have handled it better and been a team player agreeing to do whatever he can to help the team win. After he was traded he said he had no problem with playing first which we know was not true because he made a big fuss about it to the media.
Both sides needed to communicate better.
How can you plan ahead for an unexpected injury to Cases? That’s a really poor take.
.
Either way, i for one am glad Devers is not here to poison the water with so many great young hitters on this roster and truthfully, he never shouldve been paid 300m and once again, a NL team bails us out, the Dodgers did it first now the Giants saved us.
Hicks we are stuck with 1 more year, but we should not have gotten any prospects back with them paying full amount for a guy who is terrible defensively and still owed 250 million dollars lol.
We fleeced the Giants, anyone who wants Devers back needs to rexamine why, when you could give 1000 reasons why he should not.
His improvement still had him as #30 of 30 3B. Yes the team told him he would be DH. He wasn’t happy with that and it showed in the clubhouse. The team then adjusted to the situation when an injury occurred. They now had a less demanding position available and offer it to him. He took it as an insult. That’s on him, not the team.
Devers situation was 1000% a learning situation for *BOTH* a new executive who went from being in a somewhat restricted compartmentalized role to running the whole ship, and, for an immature player who was never held accountable in his early years with the team.
I think Devers believed himself to be an untouchable, every company has those guys. He learned he wasn’t. And, it cost him a 4.5 year delay to 10-5 rights, where, now he could get shipped out again if he angers the new bosses.
I think both sides learned.
Joemo – re-read his scouting profile. Devers was always know for being a troublesome defender. What to play blame with the team for part of this, make sure to send a healthy dose where it belongs – stick some with with bloom and that former front office.
Devers had people working for the better part of a decade with him on defense at 3rd. Once, just one, he *almost* approached league average, turning in a little below… every other year was worse, sometimes much worse. And it wasn’t a linear progression towards being better.
Ga – Devers has never been a good defender, but was actually improving if you watched him actually field the position. Having the promise of Trevor Story at SS and then having him hurt and replaced with revolving doors doesn’t help Devers 3B defense.
I’ll 100% agree that he’s a poor defender, but being able to play the field and not be locked into a full-time DH gives the lineup a ton of versatility and should have been the plan all along. They already had Yoshida. They must have just wanted Devers gone and they got their wish.
Why are we blaming Bloom and that “former” front office here? The majority of the staff outside of Bloom is the same. Mostly the same assistant GMs, coaches, owners, etc. They all knew Devers defense and allowed the promise to be made to Devers that he’d be the longtime 3B. That’s not just a rogue Bloom thing, that’s an organizational decision.
Uncle – the team isn’t going to come out and say it. Devers said it: bsky.app/profile/alexspeier.bsky.social/post/3loot…
And after Cora confirmed the whole long time 3B situation then there’s no reason to.kot trust Devers here.
The team could have handled the situation much better by being prepared and not having two full-time DHs… Why would they want Devers to be a full-time DH when they have Yoshida on the roster?
Devers was fed up with the horrible Red Sox front office. The ones that instead of getting help year over year, they pinched pennies and did nothing at the deadline. You can find articles about Devers asking the front office to get them help at the trade deadline.
This isn’t just an isolated incident. It’s a failure from the organization. It’s things like this that made the Red Sox not make Sasaki’s list of teams he wanted to play for, that’s how bad the Red Sox look to others.
If the team keeps treating Devers poorly, lying to him, etc then why should he bend over backwards for the team? The relationship was fractured and Breslow needed to fix it. I don’t even recall Breslow and Devers talking about it, we just had the reports that Henry met with him. Breslow thinks he did nothing wrong, or else he would have fixed the issue by talking to Devers man to man.
Devers has no issue playing wherever with SFG (even 3B! Wow!) because they haven’t treated him so poorly and they actually value him as a player. The Sox FO wanted him gone, and they got their wish. Now, man they sure do need that bat in the lineup huh….
Hicks is a FA in 2028, so two more years.
Man, so glad Devers is over in SFG actually crushing the ball. Meanwhile the Red Sox offense continues to struggle, overall numbers look ok because they occasionally crush bad pitching but they rarely, it ever, beat good pitching.
Devers bat is one of the top bats in the league, and he’s actually on a decent contract. Just look at what Soto and Vlad Jr got. Both horrible defenders as well.
@Joemo
Obviously, you are not open to others opinions. Yes, when they signed a real 3b, they told him he would be the DH. When he pouted, they looked at correcting the situation. They could not have known how childish his reaction would have been, or how public he would make it. Have you looked at how other players have handled position change? Jazz Chisolm, Colt Keith, Mookie Betts, Jose Altuve, Xander Bogaerts, Javy Baez… Some volunteered to help the team. Others had little say. None acted like he did. Please continue to defend his behavior. Its rather entertaining.
I don’t disagree that we could really use Devers’ bat in the lineup. The whole situation should have been handled much better and hopefully they learned from it. Breslow did admit that he made mistakes in that mess. I think our offense could be what holds us back from a successful run at the division title. Granted the pitching is looking pretty rough right now, with only three solid starters.
mlb – Give it time, ownership doesn’t get rid of their stars until they become expensive.
Should of left his phone at home
They survived without bregman they can do the same without Anthony..the pitching will decide how far this team gets.
Was looking forward to see him against the Yankees. Maybe he’ll be back by then I’m hoping.
Out 4-6 weeks, no shot.
Hes great man but it wouldn’t matter if hes rookie of the month again in September..they scored runs before he came up and will score now that hes gone…geez give bregman , story and company some credit …its the pitching that carries this team to wins more often than not and so long as the pitching holds up they will be ok…now they will need him if they make it to October so let’s hope its 4 weeks
Not knocking any other players on the team, but they were 34-35 before he was called up, and 40-25 since. Hard not to believe his absence will have an impact.
Not undercutting Anthony’s impact, his OBP puts pitchers in the stretch and gives opportunities down the order.
That said, lots of changes were happening leading up to Anthony’s ascension
This is terrible. He’s most likely done.
believe – He’s not gonna retire at Age 21.
Yoshida becomes important as the full time DH. Ref will play more. Lowe also everyday 1B. Maybe password back up and he needs to hit. Mix and match. Challenging to maintain the offense.
Don’t count on that. Cora loves his dumb platoons. I bet Eaton gets the playing time for now at least
Ref is an emergency only against a righty as too much use and he gets exposed. Yoshida in my view has to produce. He won’t replace Anthony on the base path or in the OF but he could replace his bat.
We are still talking about the Boston franchise that won 4 WS championships in less than 20 years?
No… Let’s leave the Password and Kristian Campbell in AAA, and bring up N. Sogard. Really?!
Why couldn’t they bring Campbell back up to play Second base?He is hitting and seems to be playing better defense?Have him start games and bring Hamilton in late in the games.
I am surprised that Campbell hasn’t been recalled. Maybe they want him to finish out Worcester’s season?
I think the next time they call on Campbell they want it to be for good and watching him some on mlbtv he seems inconsistent on defense and at the plate..you can probably get the same out of sogard short term..Campbell is a long term play
Campbell isn’t a second baseman. What they should do now is bring him up to play the outfield and hope he as a strong September. Then they can dangle him on the trade market since the logjam out there will keep him from getting a regular spot.
rmullig2, the problem is after his “audition” do others see him so highly still? Yes he’s young and I’m not worried about his bat but he looked less than average even in the outfield. No one can compare him to Rafaela but he’s closer to being compared to Yoshida than any of the other outfielders. I expected a learning curve at the plate but consistently good defense. Hamilton is not great either at second but comparing the two, Hamilton is more Jerry Remy (little more pop) whereas Campbell reminded me of myself when I played second…
They are making this situation worse by not bringing up Campbell. He is a better outfielder and hitter than yoshida even if not fully ready. Hell, even Garcia is a better call up right now. We need to replace the offense and they aren’t doing that.
Masa is hitting 294 with a 368 obp in his last 7 games…had 3 hits last night makes 18 mil per they dont need him in the OF and has done it before…for now he seems fine assuming abreau isn’t too far away
Abreu can’t even run. I’m not ok with yoshida getting every day at bats. He will be exposed again.
I disagree on Yoshidsbwho I believe just needs time. He should now get a long leash except against the best lefties.
I would like to see KC up again as well. Does seem he’s gotten a tick better the last 6 weeks.
Sounds like this is it for his season. It is a tough blow for the Sox but they have to be happy with his season overall, especially at such a young age.
I don’t think it would be wise to try to rush him back when he likely wouldn’t be at 100% anyway. I think the Sox win the first round anyway, especially if they play it at Fenway.
One player goes down for the year and the season is done? It wasn’t a very good team to begin with then.
I’m going to disagree with you. Next man up.
Ahhh gotta love some depth in September. We will be fine. Dont rush him back and get him rested for playoffs. Maybe the division is a stretch but not necessarily.
4-6 oh geez
Oh my…
Looks like Duran back to lead off and CF…which isn’t terrible.
Need Abreu back fastly.
I think they can weather this injury to Anthony. Just get to the post season and hope he can return for some ABs.
It’s so over
That is an extraordinary. It’s a bad thing to happen right now. In that heat is the best hitter on the red.Sox presently.
This is why the talk about trading Jarren Duran was stupid. It’s called “depth”.
let – Funny thing is, the only reason Duran didn’t get traded is because Mayer got injured.
And how about all the people who wanted Story released because “Mayer can easily replace him”.
They don’t make the playoffs without Story.
So when Duran is 31 you sign him to his preferred 3 or 4 year deal?
He’s already exposed that he can’t be a lead off hitter. You drop him down in the order and he’s a only a 15 Homerun guy hitting .263.
Should’ve traded him at the deadline or even last winter coming off that excellent season.
But, but, but… one of the only unquantifiable components of baseball…. The chemistry…would have been damaged. Kidding.
But on a more serious note, for what? Doesn’t sound like the Twins were giving up Ryan for Duran, and the Padres were all hot for trot but for Cease who is having such a down, down year?
Cease is a FA at the end of the year. That trade was never happening.
We can get him on a pillow contract for a year
Duran will be gone this winter for a #2 SP.
Minnesota would want him and Tolle for their stud Ryan
Hate to say it, but for the kid’s sake they should consider shutting him down for the remainder of the season. I know the oblique isn’t one to mess with long term.
That would suck but I do agree.
This team wasn’t built for 2025 so let’s keep the franchise protected.
It was fun while it lasted. Tough injury since he’ll be out a month minimum. Not to mention when he is ready to return he won’t having his timing down which could take a bit to come back. I honestly don’t expect to see him again until ’26.
Somebody wake me up when Jordan hicks is released
HEY our old friend Alex Verdugo is a free agent !?? Anybody? Anybody?? Lmao
Whenever I see or hear his name, I want to stab myself in the leg with a pencil. He is such a reminder of how bad the Sox got hosed by LA. Well… at least we have Connor Wong. Anyone have a #2 I can borrow?
But Connor Wong got Chapman straightened out. We can count that as part of the return for Mookie Betts can’t we?
Verdugo had a ton of talent. He should’ve been a 20/20, .285, good glove player. I think LA probably saw some processing issues in him.
Yeah, we could have had the big righty fireballer in that deal
This hurts, this kid was really coming on and who can forget his epic bat flip in Yankee stadium? Luckily for the Sox, the majority of our depth is at the outfield position.
Kinda bummed we sent the password back down, now is the time we could really use him.
Where is Garcia? Sogard is steady defensively but has zero power. Garcia can take-let the kid play!
Ride it out and see what happens! He might be back for a playoff push but either way sox are overachieving and we might get to watch them in a playoff series where anything can happen in a week AL. Who really though they would be within a few games of the best record in the AL…..
Its going to boil down to pitching and sox could have 4 very good starters. Exited to see Tolle pitch tonight!
I’m not trying to make any comparisons other than being that young and having played,what, 3 months in the league. I can’t help thinking of Jacoby Ellsbury. Although the later still was very productive offensively and defensively his quirky injury really reduced his times in the majors. I’m hoping this isn’t that. Really like to see him reach his ceiling whatever that might be.