Red Sox Prospect Roman Anthony Is More Than A Power Hitter

Image credit: Roman Anthony (Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)

Over the first two seasons of Roman Anthony’s professional career, the top Red Sox prospect has stumbled out of the starting blocks.

Last year, Anthony hit .200/.363/.250 in April before improving to .285/.411/.506 over the final 90 games of the season. He ended up jumping three levels in 2023, reaching Double-A Portland on Sept. 5 despite being just 19 years old. History repeated itself in 2024, as Anthony slashed .205/.310/.329 in April with Double-A Portland before hitting .294/.386/.536 from May 1st on.

“Obviously, I don’t want to start slow,” Anthony said about his early-season performance. “But it’s that confidence that it all evens out, and I’m going to stick with the same routine and the same work that’s gotten me here.”

That work has seen Anthony develop into the No. 2 prospect in Baseball America’s Top 100 and become arguably the most talented member of the Red Sox’s vaunted ‘big four’ prospect collection that is now on the cusp of major league impact in Boston.

Anthony’s ability to adjust has allowed him to recover from slow starts in each of his first two full professional seasons. He credited his ability to “continue to learn and show up every day and be as available as I can” while taking pride in his ability to stay on the field and embrace the grind of the season.

Anthony said his greatest lesson has been that “availability is the best ability in this game.”

And he has been available, starting 208 games over the last two seasons and managing to avoid injury while continuing to do the off-the-field work when no one is looking.

“Just getting in there and wanting to play every day,” Anthony said. “It can be a grind, but the more at-bats that I get, the more comfortable I feel, and that’s how this year’s gone on.”

Anthony has certainly gotten more comfortable while starring for Portland throughout the summer. That comfort helped lead to a performance for the ages in the first annual Futures Game Skills Competition in Arlington, Texas back in July.

Heading into the final round of the skills competition—a home run derby-style free-for-all—Anthony ranked sixth out of the eight competitors. Locking in, he hit six home runs to all parts of Globe Life Field, showcasing some of the best power in the minor leagues.

That homer display didn’t come as a shock for those that have followed Anthony’s career up to this point. Anthony’s best tool is his plus (potentially double-plus) power. One of the top exit velocity leaders in MiLB, Anthony’s 108.4 mph 90th percentile exit velocity ranks in the top one percent of all minor league hitters, while his Max EV of 116 mph represents the hardest hit ball by any player in the Red Sox organization this season.

Anthony, however, is more than a power hitter.

Describing himself as “a hitter with power, not a power hitter,” crediting a coach from his youth with instilling that mentality.

“I’m not somebody who just goes up there and tries to get to that power every single at bat,” Anthony said, adding that he takes pride in using all fields to avoid becoming one-dimensional. “I think that all goes back to going in the cage and working on hitting the ball the pull side, and then switching it up to work on going oppo.”

It’s Anthony’s ability to pair top-of-the-scale power with developed plate skills that makes him an outlier. In the rarified air of hitters logging 99th-percentile bat speed, only Nationals star rookie James Wood compares when it comes to pairing such elite bat speed and impact with average-or-better contact skills and approach. That combination has led Anthony to the upper echelons of rankings where he stands to inherit the No.1 ranking on the Top 100 Prospects list once Rays slugger Junior Caminero graduates.

Red Sox Director of Player Development Brian Abraham credited Anthony’s desire to improve his game.

“He’s a really well-rounded just player,” Abraham said. “He’s a kid who wants to be the best version of himself in all aspects.”

For Abraham, it came down to Anthony’s ability to adjust and a willingness to challenge himself and put in the work needed to formulate a game plan based on the opposing pitcher.

“His adjustability at the plate depending on who the pitcher is, what his approach is that given day,” he said, “Whether he’s looking to be aggressive, pull-side in the air early in the count or seeing multiple pitches and then driving the ball the other way later in the count.”

Since moving to Triple-A, that routine has taken another step in the form of work with Worcester’s in-house Trajekt machine to improve Anthony’s day-to-day process. The advanced pitching machine emulates spin, velocity and movement characteristics of any pitcher in professional baseball, allowing hitters to see a given starter and formulate a game plan.

“They’ve had every starter that we’ve faced so far,” said Anthony, who sometimes goes into the cage before games just to see pitches without the accompanying swing work. “Even if I don’t swing, just going in there and seeing a couple fastballs, seeing a couple whatever the guys got that day, I think that helps.”

After another successful season, Anthony finds himself on the cusp of the major leagues at just 20 years old. A part of a highly touted potential future core for the Red Sox, he has risen to the top of the system by committing to his craft and focusing on being more than just a power hitter.