Red Sox Might Cut Ties With $50 Million Rising Star In Favor Of Roman Anthony

The Boston Red Sox are in an unenviable position.

The number-one prospect in all of baseball, outfielder Roman Anthony, looks as ready as a 21-year-old could be to make his major league debut. But Boston has three starting outfielders they don't necessarily want to give up on.

Wilyer Abreu is on track to be an All-Star this year. Jarren Duran is struggling, but he was one last year. And Ceddanne Rafaela is playing Platinum Glove-worthy defense in center field while showing real improvements at the plate.

Whether it's a trade, a position change, or a reduction in playing time, someone is going to have their starting job cut out from under them when Anthony arrives. And one baseball writer believes the choice is fairly clear.

On Friday, Jacob Levine of FanSided projected Rafaela as the odd man out, and pondered whether the 24-year-old would get traded or simply converted to a full-time utility role.

"Even (Rafaela's recent success) won't make his stay in the center permanent, and this will most likely be a temporary one when Anthony comes up," Levine wrote.

"Now the question is, why haven't they done it already? That answer is actually really simple; they want to see what they can get out of Rafaela before making any decisions. If he's not consistent by June, then Roman will be called up. It's not an if, it's more of a when. Most likely, GM Craig Breslow wants Rafaela to show his production on the field and boost up his stock before they trade him."

Keeping Rafaela and not starting him in center field sort of defeats the purpose of having him on the roster. Yes, it's nice that he can play the middle infield, but unless Boston wants him to take the bulk of the starts at shortstop away from Trevor Story, he's not going to play enough to justify his contract.

That contract, signed last spring, was eight years, $50 million. That does complicate the situation, but it certainly isn't a deterrent to other teams that might want to trade for him, given how good he's been of late.