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.
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).
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
This is terrible. He’s most likely done.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.