The Boston Red Sox continue to promote players from Triple-A Worcester, with Roman Anthony still waiting for his name to be called. This is a Red Sox team that has fallen to fourth place in the AL East with their 28-32 record, having lost six of their last seven. Similar to the Los Angeles Angels, their record was once 25-25, but they now sit multiple games below .500 with a prospect raking in the minors.
Chris Gasper Believes Red Sox Keep Anthony in a ‘Different Category’
After being shut out by the Atlanta Braves, the Red Sox are making some changes prior to the series finale. AAA prospects, Nate Eaton and Luis Guerrero, are primed to be called up to play at Truist Park.
With Anthony once again not making that list of transactions, Chris Gasper broke down his thoughts on the situation and how highly the club thinks of Anthony.
“I feel they put him in a different category than the other prospects,” Gasper said. “He is the favored son, the crown jewel…they definitely want him to hit the ground running. He seems to be protected in a way that the other guys are not.”
“It’s like Kristian Campbell struggled in Spring Training defensively, but they just threw him out there. Rafaela chases too much, but he’s great on defense, so we’ll just ride with that and fix it on the fly.”
To put things into perspective, 22-year-old Campbell is hitting just .227 through 185 at-bats. He has a -0.5 WAR, and he’s struck out 59 times. As for the 24-year-old Ceddanne Rafaela, he’s hitting a more respectable .239, and while he may chase, he has one less at-bat than Campbell but has only gone down on strikes 39 times.
The Red Sox have done a great job of fixing him on the fly, as his WAR sits at 1.9.
Gasper brought up a quote from Alex Cora, who said, “It’s trying to win as many games as possible. But also teaching the game”. He mentioned, “That’s really hard, and I think those things are in direct conflict. I don’t think there’s a lot of managers in Boston who can do that successfully.”
The Red Sox record speaks for itself, but Anthony’s numbers in AAA do more than enough to justify him getting a shot in the big leagues.
At just 21 years old, the lefty is hitting .305 as all 190 of his at-bats have come in AAA. With a .500 slugging and .935 OPS, his numbers are incredible as he’s struck out 49 times, but he’s been able to draw 45 walks to counterbalance that. Anthony has 40 career minor league home runs and 164 RBIs.