Roman Anthony Should Be On the Big League Roster Already

Call him up and put pressure on Rafaela and even on Abreu and Duran. We are in an excellent position to set a fair and needed internal competition not seen since I can remember. Call Mayer and Grissom too and send down sloppy Hamilton and useless Casas. I don’t care if this is April. 

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Not picking on you, but everybody says this.  I've never heard anyone say they wouldn't trade Player A even if they knew the return was better.  

OTOH, what GM is going to trade you something they know is better than what they're getting back?

You've never heard me say  "DO NOT TRADE _____. " Others have said this often.

Of course, there are many players I would avoid trading, if possible, and maybe I'd expect a return no GM would ever give, so in that sense, they could never be traded.

I'm really not against trading Duran, but I think people are undervaluing him based on a 22 game sample size. I do not think GMs rise and fall assigned values based on SSS.

Big trades are not made in April, anyway, so this talk is "fantasy league," right now. Improvements that can more easily be made are call-ups of very promising ML ready top prospects.

1 hour ago, iortiz said:

Call him up and put pressure on Rafaela and even on Abreu and Duran. We are in an excellent position to set a fair and needed internal competition not seen since I can remember. Call Mayer and Grissom too and send down sloppy Hamilton and useless Casas. I don’t care if this is April. 

If players were demoted as often as you suggest, we'd get whiplash.

37 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

If players were demoted as often as you suggest, we'd get whiplash.

I only would demote Hamilton an Casas and bring up Anthony and Grissom. 

7 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

You've never heard me say  "DO NOT TRADE _____. " Others have said this often.

I said it about Anthony, and Casas, at one point, because this club desperately needs another consistent power hitter in its batting order to pair with Devers. 

Each of those guys show potential to develop into perennial 30-home run men, something Boston has been missing since Betts and Martinez overlapped (each averaged 31 HRs in four-year spans; Mookie from 2016-19; JD in '18/19, 21/22).

Raffy averaged 30 HRs in six full seasons: '18/19, '21-24.

Now, it may be even more important to keep Anthony around, with injury issues possibly depleting the power of Casas and Devers; posters making Casas their poster boy for failure should note a torn ribcage from swinging too hard may forever alter a batter's longball abilities (maybe this -- and not his fingernails and suntan rituals -- is why the Sox tried to trade him last winter).

Btw: I was also against trading Teel (because a good catcher who can hit is as rare as Carlton Fisk) -- and look what that got us...

Until Anthony is able to play OF, he should not be called up.

It's my understanding he has already gained the extra year of service by not being able to go over 171 days of MLB service time in 2025. Someone, correct me if I'm wrong. (I trusted Google search.)

13 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

There were a few times were I thought I was wrong, but it turns out I was only mistaken. 

Still counts as being wrong.

2 hours ago, drewski6 said:

Thats the opposite of what I meant.

Duran > best closer in league + best catcher in league.  Certainly best closer/catcher combo on same team.  Now if you split it up so we could maybe get Mason Miller but a better catcher than who is on the As, maybe. But I honestly, I prob still turn it down.

Catchers are mostly JAGs and closers are too volatile.

Look at Devin Williams this year.

I see Duran as our second most important player (behind Crochet)

Top 6-7 catchers are very valuable in MLB. I know Duran might have a higher WAR value, but OF'ers are easier to find.

From 2023-2025 (600+ PAs) these are the top OPS by catchers:

.817 Wm Contreras

.808 Y Diaz

.794 Will Smith

.793 Sean Murphy

.782 Ryan Jeffers (not good on D)

.763 S Perez (getting old)

.762 O'Hoppe

.754 Realmuto

.741 G m oreno

All the rest are under .731 (Wong)

There are 11 OF'ers with an OPS over .817 and Duran is not one of them.

I might trade Duran for Murphy and cash, but I'm not so sure. I would not expect a top RP'er to make me say yes.

11 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Top 6-7 catchers are very valuable in MLB. I know Duran might have a higher WAR value, but OF'ers are easier to find.

From 2023-2025 (600+ PAs) these are the top OPS by catchers:

.817 Wm Contreras

.808 Y Diaz

.794 Will Smith

.793 Sean Murphy

.782 Ryan Jeffers (not good on D)

.763 S Perez (getting old)

.762 O'Hoppe

.754 Realmuto

.741 G m oreno

All the rest are under .731 (Wong)

There are 11 OF'ers with an OPS over .817 and Duran is not one of them.

I might trade Duran for Murphy and cash, but I'm not so sure. I would not expect a top RP'er to make me say yes.

OPS is one tool to evaluate position players, but for catchers probably not as valuable as OPS Against.

Not sure how catchers are credited with WAR on defense, but there's probably a way (without human counting) to find W-L records in specific games caught.

Doubt there's a stat for number of times a catcher is requested by starting pitchers, but bet coaching staffs use the ear test...

20 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

OPS is one tool to evaluate position players, but for catchers probably not as valuable as OPS Against.

Not sure how catchers are credited with WAR on defense, but there's probably a way (without human counting) to find W-L records in specific games caught.

Doubt there's a stat for number of times a catcher is requested by starting pitchers, but bet coaching staffs use the ear test...

I'm a huge believer in catchers making a big difference on D.

If Narvaez is way better than Murphy, I would not make the trade.

On 4/20/2025 at 12:34 PM, moonslav59 said:

Anthony is no Rafaela on D, but he's pretty good. He's no Refsnyder, Yoshida or Manny.

Rafaela could still play CF vs LHPs. That's over 25% or games. He can play back-up infield and late inning defense/PR duties, too.

I really like Rafaela, but Anthony deserves a chance to prove he's the best OF'er we have- right now. If he ends up 2nd or 3rd best, which is a strong possibility, especially year one, so be it.

Right now, he is DH'ing through an injury, so I'd wait for the day he gains that extra year of control, but I'd wait no longer.

Sensible.  I tend to resist hype, but agree the outfield hitting--Duran and Rafaela--sucks right now, so why not give Anthony a shot?  

17 hours ago, Old Red said:

Agree on this. I’ve said this before, but it seems Anthony, and Mayer are like money burning a hole in your pocket, and you just have to spend it, or in this case Mayer, and Anthony just have to be called up. They will get their chances.  Casas needs to get going, but so does Rafffy. 

I think of them more like lottery tickets you haven’t scratched.  Sure they might be worth millions and solve all your problems.  But most likely not…

1 hour ago, Maxbialystock said:

Sensible.  I tend to resist hype, but agree the outfield hitting--Duran and Rafaela--sucks right now, so why not give Anthony a shot?  

I'm 100% behind calling Anthony up, the second he deemed well enough to play OF well.

While we have no idea if Anthony will measure up to expectations, but I do think the odds are in his favor he can outperform Rafaela v RHPs and Ref/Raf vs LHPs, whichever we chose to sit/play for Abreu's platoon.

Here is a list of the recent #1 prospects:

'25 Sasaki

'24 J Holliday

'23 G Henderson

'22 Rutschman & Witt

'20-'21 W Franco

'19 Vladdy

'18 Acuna & Ohtani

'17 Beni

'16 Seager

'15 K Bryant

This list does not "set the odds" for Anthony, but come on....

Give the guy a chance, as soon as he can play OF not DH.

19 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I don't see calling up Anthony as any kind of "force."

1. We are not benching Rafaela for Anthony: he would still play a very significant role. (Platoon w Abreu and play some SS, 2B, 3B, PR and late game defense.) He could still work his way back into more playing time.

2. Rafaela has played 200 games and has over 720 career PAs. I'm not sure what another 50, 100 or 250 would prove. Even if he improves his offense, Anthony could still very well produce more.

3. We don't need to, nor should we trade any OF'er or Casas. Anthony has enormous potential to provide a huge plus to a teams struggling on offense. This is not some roll of the dice. Anthony is the top prospect in America and is widely viewed as ML ready, yesterday. He's got nothing more to prove in AAA.

I'm okay waiting until his shoulder is healed and he's played some more OF before calling him up.

I am not arguing whether Anthony is ML ready.  I'm not arguing that he shouldn't be called up at some point this year, probably sooner rather than later.  That said, to call him up with a little more than a week to go in April is forcing the issue, IMO.  Someone will have to go down when he is called up.  We need to give the current roster players more time to see exactly what we have. 

We're only 1.5 games behind the Yankees.  Nothing is dire.  We can have some more patience.

On 4/23/2025 at 10:03 AM, drewski6 said:

I agree, when in conversations such as this with others , I would phrase it like this (this is just how I would explain it)

Its not really about Roman vs Cedanne vs anybody else. Or who might eventually be the odd man out or get squeezed for PT.

Its simply about hoarding as much talent as you can for as long as you can. Its not too different from sending down prospect x over prospect y because prospect x has options remaining (and you therefore "can").

Anyone you send down, you can call back up.  What you cant do is undo a trade once finalized.  Its about putting off decisions that cant be undone.  Kind of like how people (generally) dont get surgery until theyve tried physical therapy because surgery cannot be undone.

Ive noticed a lot of people have this desire to have things figured out.  "This player is going to be our 3b, this player our 2b. This player will be traded" Almost like (some) people have a need for tidiness.  Everyone has a set role (or at least a label, e.g. "third baseman of the future") and if multiple options are clogging that up, a move should be made so its "cleaner".

But I embrace the volatility.  Because injuries happen, depth is called upon, breakouts come from unlikely sources, and cant miss prospects can flop.  And options and depth are a good thing.  So hoard em while you can.  Eventually the system forces your hand (e.g. player x is out of options) , but until it does - hoard away. And if that prevets us from knowing exactly when and where guys will play down the line, I honestly just dont care.  Versatility and options over everyone having tidy set roles (for me anyways).

Well said Drewski.  I very much agree with your opinion of keeping as much depth as you can for as long as you can.  Depth and versatility.  It's oftentimes not the starter who will get you to the playoffs, but how well the depth player can fill in when the starter goes down with injury.