3 min read

Roman Anthony

When spring training began, Kristian Campbell was judged to have the best chance of making the Opening Day roster among the Big Three prospects of the Red Sox.

The reason was simple: Campbell can play a position (second base) which, prior to the signing of free agent Alex Bregman, lacked an obvious starter. That represented a clear path for him to become an everyday contributor; the Red Sox weren’t about to have any of their young players making the team as a reserve.

In the first week of spring training, the Red Sox were so impressed with Campbell’s play at second that they began imagining an infield in which he would start there, with Bregman shifted to third base.

Weeks later, that remains a possible scenario, though the Red Sox have refrained from talking about the infield alignment as they attempt to manage Rafael Devers’ public reluctance to move to DH.

But in the last few days, another possibility has emerged. Wilyer Abreu has been sidelined since the start of camp because of a gastrointestinal virus that has limited his preparation. Abreu hasn’t begun baseball activities, and with Opening Day just under four weeks away, his availability is an open question.

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“You can tell he’s not as strong as he was three weeks ago,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told the Boston Globe. “It’s not only the baseball side of it. He missed a big portion of strength and conditioning, all that stuff. Now we have to ramp up, so we’ll see. We’ll see what happens there. The most important thing is for him to be healthy.”

Given the uncertainty surrounding Abreu, there would now seem a path for a second member of the team’s elite trio to break camp with the team.

Roman Anthony is judged by most evaluators to be the top positional prospect in the game. Last year, splitting time between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester, he slashed .291/.396/.498. Anthony is uncommonly mature and has not looked out of place in his first big league spring training camp.

“I think Roman can hold his own right now,” said one scout who has seen Anthony in the past and this spring, “and would feel much more comfortable with him navigating right field in Fenway than in left field. I think the Green Monster could be tough for him at first. That’s a tough job for a kid that uses his speed so well. It might be a small growing pain for him.

“In a perfect world, three or four months in AAA would be good for his development, but I think given the opportunity to break with the club, he could hold his own. He’ll just have to deal with how pitchers will attack him and how he handles that early with more of the spotlight on him at the major league level. But I think he can handle that.”

If Anthony were to make the team out of spring training, it would be with the understanding that the stay would be temporary. Abreu could reclaim his spot in right by mid-April; after winning a Gold Glove and posting a respectable .781 OPS as a rookie, he deserves to have his job preserved as he recovers.

But the early season audition might serve Anthony’s development well. If he succeeds, he could return to Worcester with the knowledge that he’s ready to complete at the big league level. If he struggles, he’ll know what he needs to improve upon at Triple-A.

Anthony won’t turn 21 until May. The last time the Red Sox had someone younger than 21 appear in an Opening Day lineup was 1968, when outfielder Joe Lahoud made his major league debut at 20 years and 362 days.

Anthony would become the youngest Sox player to appear in an Opening Day game since Tony Conigliaro, who was 19 years and 100 days old in 1964.

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