Five Questions For Roman Anthony: Boston Red Sox Top Prospect and MLB’s Top Prospect
By Tom Joyce | October 22, 2024, 17:05 EDT
The Boston Red Sox have the best prospect in Major League Baseball, according to Baseball America: Roman Anthony.
The Major League Baseball prospect publication ranked the Red Sox farmhand as the Number 1 prospect in its end-of-the-season rankings, released last month.
Roman Anthony is a 20-year-old outfielder from North Palm Beach, Florida, who split time between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester this past season, two minor league affiliates of the Boston Red Sox.
The 6-foot-2 200-pounder bats left-handed and throws right-handed. He hit .291 with 18 home runs, an .894 OPS (on-base plus slugging), and 21 stolen bases in 119 games this season.
The Red Sox selected him in the third round of the 2022 Major League Baseball draft out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland, Florida); the team gave him a $2.5 million signing bonus. Since then, he has progressed rapidly in the Red Sox farm system; SoxProspects expects that he will make his Major League Baseball debut next year.
NewBostonPost conducted an interview with Anthony at Dunkin’ Park (home of the Hartford Yard Goats, the Colorado Rockies Double-A affiliate) in Hartford, Connecticut, on Saturday, April 27.
It is below:
1. You were at a Red Sox game in September 2023 and made an appearance in the NESN broadcast booth. What was your takeaway from attending Fenway Park as a spectator?
It’s awesome. It’s definitely motivating since you wanna get there as a player more than a spectator. Every time I’ve gone there — and I’ve been a couple of times since I’ve been drafted — each time it’s felt more and more real –and it’s felt more and more motivating each time I get there and it makes me want to be on the field instead of watching.
2. You won a high school baseball state championship at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. How did that success and winning culture from high school carry over to you for the pros?
It was awesome. I give so much credit to my high school coach Todd Fitzgerald. He was my coach pretty much all throughout my life growing up with travel ball or whatever it was. He kind of just built that tradition into us that anything but winning was unacceptable. Credit to him for the way he had us go about our work every day. I give a lot of credit to him.
3. You’re from southern Florida. What’s been your favorite experience seeing an alligator?
I’ve seen a ton. Growing up, I’ve seen a whole lot. But just recently, in the offseason, I was playing golf a lot. You see a lot more than you’d expect just sitting on bunkers and on the greens and whatever. So I’ve seen a lot golfing over the last two offseasons. I think those are always pretty scary to run into when you go into the sand — because I usually don’t stay on the fairway. When I go to the sand to look for my ball and I see an alligator right next to it, sometimes it’s kind of scary when you have to tap it on the butt and get it to move.
4. What’s something Red Sox fans might not know about Roman Anthony that you’d like to share?
Ooh, that’s a good question. I like to golf a ton. Whenever my pro baseball career ends, I want to become a pro golfer. I got a long way to go. I’ve got a lot to work on, but I just love golf. I love sports and doing something in the offseason that’s competitive that’s not baseball for once. I’m gonna go with: maybe one day they’ll see me on the tour, the old guys’ tour [PGA Tour Champions] when I’m done playing. [Laughing.]
5. When did you know you wanted to be a big leaguer and at what point did you realize that was feasible?
Ever since I was a young kid, ever since I could walk, I was walking around with a ball and a bat. But growing up, I played every sport that I could. Right around high school was when it got real when I started to get recruited by some colleges and as high school went along. But I think it was always a goal of mine. Baseball was always the first sport. I really liked football and anything I could get my hands on, but there was always something different about baseball and I was a little better at it. Like I said, as a got older, like as a freshman in high school, that’s when I would say it got pretty real.
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