Inside the Red Sox’s Rollercoaster Ride with Roman Anthony: Genius or Gambit?

There’s no doubting Anthony’s stupendous raw power — his 94.3 mph average exit velocity ranks fifth in MLB behind only Oneil Cruz, Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber and Shohei Ohtani — but actualizing that special juice into over-the-fence production is still a work in progress. Anthony’s 51.4% ground ball rate ranks near the top of the league and is in line with his career norms in the minors. Finding a way to lift the ball more consistently remains the most obvious way for Anthony’s production to take a sizable leap. Add in some elevated swing-and-miss tendencies — Anthony went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in Wednesday’s series finale — and he is a long way from reaching his full potential. At just 21 years old, though, that’s completely understandable. And usually when players are this good this young, they tend to make adjustments faster than most. Don’t be surprised if Anthony starts launching balls airborne more routinely sooner rather than later.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14