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

Someone introducing a new offering is hardly newsworthy at a time when pitch design is a staple among modern organizations, but this one stands out more than most considering Javier’s prior trajectory and pitch mix. This is a pitcher who rose to prominence thanks in large part to a fantastic four-seam fastball that he threw nearly 60% of the time, one of the highest rates of any starting pitcher in baseball. A sweeper served as Javier’s primary secondary weapon, and those two pitches alone were good enough to make him extremely difficult to hit, exemplified most memorably in his six no-hit innings in Game 4 of the 2022 World Series. But Javier’s command and velocity wavered in 2023, leaving him especially vulnerable to the long ball and not nearly as effective as he was earlier in his career. He had started to emphasize his changeup more last season before his elbow injury, but a sinker, or two-seam fastball, was never part of his arsenal at any point prior to his return this summer.

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