Talk Sox Red Sox Minor League Hitter of the Month - March/April 2025

[Nick John]

The Boston Red Sox have had several minor league players get off to hot starts at the plate. Whether it was Marcelo Mayer and his minor league leading 34 RBI or Franklin Arias and his hot hitting that led to a quick promotion to High-A Greenville, there was no shortage of great hitters. Though, the one who claimed Talk Sox’s minor league hitter for the months of March and April is instead a player who’s underlying metrics showed that he was the best hitter throughout the organization through the opening month. That hitter was Roman Anthony.

Following the conclusion of the April 30th game, Anthony was hitting .292/.423/.539 in 25 games. In those 25 games he’s managed 26 hits with 11 of them being for extra bases while also driving in 14 runs. What may be more impressive, however, has been his ability to get on base as he’s walked 21 times through the first month of the season.

Anthony’s ability to get on base is a huge reason for his great start as he’s laying off pitches outside the zone and forcing pitchers to come to him. This is where the metrics help to sell him as the best hitter in the entire minor league system for the Red Sox. On the season so far, Anthony has a 17.9% O-Swing which places him in the 96th percentile for Triple-A. O-Swing is used to explain what percentage of pitches outside the strike zone a batter swings at, showing that the young left-handed hitter is barely chasing.

This ability to not be fooled by pitches has helped Anthony become a feared batter. His walk rate is one of the best, sitting at just under 20% at 19.6% and he’s striking out at just over 20% at 20.6%, numbers that are both impressive for someone who is only 20 years old.

Thanks to his patience, Anthony has managed to wait on the pitchers he faces to get better pitches which in turn helps with his contact rates. While his zone-contact is only 80.4%, that is in part due to his very patient process at the plate. Anthony on the season is only swinging at 53% of pitches thrown in the strike zone. Meaning that of the 53% of the time he’s swinging, 80.4% of those swings are connecting the pitch. Though what’s most impressive about his swing is just how hard those hits are.

Again, keep in mind the fact that Anthony is only 20 years old but so far in the season his average exit velocity on the season is sitting at 96.7 mph while his max on the season has reached 113.1 mph. Add to it a barrel percentage of 31.2% and a hard-hit rate of 62.5%. and Anthony is destroying every baseball he’s making contact with.

And while the stats may not back up the thought of Anthony being the best hitter for the months of March and April, the underlying stats do. It would have been easy to defend Franklin Arias and his .346 batting average for Salem or how Abraham Toro and Vaughn Grissom are also putting up great seasons in Worcester with 29 and 28 hits respectively.

However, Anthony’s process and results are much more impressive especially when you remember he’s doing this at the age of 20 against significantly older competition. Everything he’s done has screamed that he’s above that level of competition and while hits may not be dropping in all the time, everything else shows that he is arguably the top minor league hitter for the Red Sox through April.

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