Red Sox Reveal Offseason Plan for Roman Anthony

The Boston Red Sox budgeted for a breakout 2026 season for young star Roman Anthony. Instead, his year was marred by injury as he once again could not make the lineup for the final game as the club bowed out to divisional rival New York in the Wild Card round for the second straight season.

Suffering a hand injury in early May, Anthony went through several months of rest and rehab before starting a hitting progression in late July. He returned to major league action on August 30 after a minor league rehab stint and appeared in 25 games before the end of the regular season.

During the first Wild Card game, Anthony reaggravated the same hand that put him out for much of the season and was forced out of the game. Imaging revealed additional strains on top of what was previously affected, and the 22-year-old was replaced on the playoff roster by Curtis Mead.

There were several reasons why the Red Sox were unable to get by the Yankees for a second straight year, but not having their lead-off man healthy and able to play was one that carried both an immediate impact and long-term concern. But given the reaction from both Anthony and the club over the past week, there is important context as to why this popped back up when it did.

Shortly after the original injury, the Red Sox indicated that Anthony would not resume swinging until he was pain-free. As time went on and no updates came on his health, it seems the team adjusted this expectation to fit a timeline that would have him back for a postseason push.

In the early stages of his hitting progression, manager Chad Tracy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow were careful to avoid the term pain-free, instead emphasizing that Anthony was responding well and feeling good. With the use of hindsight, it’s clear that it became about pain management in order to get one of the team’s best hitters back out there for October.

When speaking about Mead filling in on the postseason roster coming off of a broken wrist, Breslow explained that “there are times when you accelerate timelines and compress things,” which also seems to fit the approach used with Anthony this summer.

Anthony was effective upon his return, slashing .262/.321/.476 with four home runs and 10 RBI, but the September workload turned out to be too much to handle as pain crept up at the end of the month and intensified in the final games.

“I’ve been experiencing some things with the swings and check swings over the past six weeks, and last night just felt a little more intense than past swings have and lingered a little bit longer than the ones that I had before, so it was super alarming,” Anthony said ahead of Game 2 in the Bronx last week. “It got to a point where it was tough to grip a bat, so I knew this was similar to the one earlier on in the year, and that’s why we decided to go get imaging.”