Boston Red Sox prospects: Roman Anthony enters Baseball America's top 100
Roman Anthony has been the Boston Red Sox prospect with the most helium over the last month-plus. That continued on Saturday when he entered Baseball America's top 100 prospects list ($) sitting at number 95.
Anthony was the 79th overall pick in the 2022 draft, coming out of high school. He was the third pick of the draft for the Red Sox, with fellow high schoolers Mikey Romero (24th overall) and Cutter Coffey (41st overall) ahead of him.
Anthony started the 2023 season in Single-A. There, he slashed .228/.376/.316 with nine doubles, one triple, and one home run in 42 games (158 at-bats). The left-handed hitting outfielder had driven in 18 runs, scored 27 more, and stolen 11 bases.
Overall, his box score numbers didn't look great. However, there was a lot to love about his game. The underlying numbers were fantastic. Anthony had walked the same number of times (38) as he had struck out (38). He was also hitting the ball extremely hard. The issue was that he was putting it on the ground too often.
At this point, the hype train had started rolling on Anthony. His plate discipline and consistent hard-hitting of baseballs seemed to wow the right people. In late May, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN put Roman Anthony in his top 50 (!!!) prospects. More big news came for the Boston Red Sox prospect shortly. On June 13, he was promoted to the High-A Greenville Drive.
In his first High-A at-bat, the 19-year-old ripped a double. The next day, he led off the game with a home run. It appeared he had stopped hitting the ball on the ground.
Anthony's appeared in 10 games (37-bats) for High-A, slashing .243/.378/.541 with two doubles and three home runs. He's driven in seven runs, scored 10 more, and stolen one base. Anthony's walked eight times compared to 12 strikeouts.
His inclusion on the list gives the Red Sox a loaded system. Marcelo Mayer, Miguel Bleis, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Nick Yorke are all featured heavily in a number of prospect rankings. Anthony seems to be joining them quite often now.
At this point, it feels like the stock will only continue to rise for the Boston Red Sox prospect. With the base stats starting to catch up to the underlying stats, don't expect Baseball America to be the last to put him in their top 100 list.