On Monday, the Red Sox finally called up the number one prospect in baseball to the big leagues, adding outfielder Roman Anthony to the big league roster as right fielder Wilyer Abreu heads to the injured list with a left oblique strain.
LISTEN LIVE TO THE MAJOR LEAGUE DEBUT OF ROMAN ANTHONY
Anthony, who turned 21 in May, is batting fifth tonight against the Rays, and will be in right field for the injured Abreu.
In 265 plate appearances for Worcester this season, Anthony was hitting .289 with 10 home runs, 29 RBI, 45 runs scored and a .913 OPS in 58 games. And unless you live under a rock, we all saw him set the baseball world on fire on Saturday with a 497-foot home run that came off his bat at nearly 116 miles per hour.
Even though this was a call-up months in the making, Anthony told reporters before Monday’s game that he was on the bus ready to depart with Worcester for a road series against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs when WooSox manager Chad Tracy got the call from Boston.
Instead of a four-hour bus ride to the Rust Belt, Anthony hopped in his car and rushed through reverse-commute traffic down the pike to get to Fenway Park as soon as possible.
“It was great - there wasn’t too much traffic,” said Anthony. “It was nice. I got to kind of just get here as quick as I could. And obviously, you know, a little bit of a short notice, but better than being on the bus to Lehigh Valley right now.”
Anthony joins fellow rookies Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer on the big league club, with the three of them being dubbed as “The Big Three” during spring training. Only Campbell made the MLB roster for Opening Day, with Mayer getting the call-up on May 24.
But with Anthony’s call-up, “The Big Three” becomes “The Boston Three Party.”
“It was awesome,” said Anthony when asked how it was to see his fellow rookies upon arriving at Fenway. “It's been a while since I've seen Kristian, and I feel like I just said bye to Marcelo. So it's great. It's great to be with those guys, and just play.”
“Does it help to have two guys you know, two friends in Kristian and Marcelo, who we saw you hang out with in Spring Training, does that make the transition a little bit easier?” asked WCVB’s Duke Castiglione.
“I think so,” said Anthony. “I think it's always been, you know, it made Double-A easier, made High-A easier being with those guys. So I'm excited to see what it's like playing with them in the big leagues. We've all talked about it many times before, going back to last year, when we were all playing together in Double-A. I think it's something we always talked about, and now that it's gonna come true tonight, it’s definitely special.”
Tune in to WEEI and WEEI.com for all the latest on the debut of Roman Anthony, and listen to the game on the WEEI Shaw’s Star Market Red Sox Radio Network.