WEST SACRAMENTO – For the first time in two months, the Red Sox were able to report some substantive progress for outfielder Roman Anthony, who has resumed a swing progression.
The outfielder suffered a partial tear of a tendon connected to his ring finger on May 4 at Comerica Park.
At the time, both Anthony and the Red Sox were hoping it could be just a run-of-the-mill stint on the 10-day injured list.
But the injury was slow to heal, and Anthony felt pain at the back end of his swing when he tried to initiate a progression in the final week of May.
In early July, Anthony moved to the team’s Spring Training base in Fort Myers, Fla., where he continued to work out and do all baseball activities besides swinging, all the while waiting for the discomfort in his wrist to go away.
On Wednesday, Anthony felt ready to swing again.
“Roman has started swinging a bat off a tee, short flips. There's some of that action going on. It’s mainly up to about 30 swings at this time, and he's doing well,” said interim manager Chad Tracy. “I know you guys will ask, 'What's the next step?' There's no clear next steps yet. He just started doing it.”
Anthony went through that same progression on Thursday.
“It's probably going to remain that way for a little while to see how he's feeling, and then if that continues to go well, we'll start talking about building out a progression into more stuff. But he at least has a bat in his hand. He’s swinging,” said Tracy.
Entering the season, Anthony was projected as perhaps the most important hitter in the Boston batting lineup, a rising star in the minds of many.
This, after his encouraging rookie season in which he slashed .292/.396/.463 with eight homers and 32 RBIs before he suffered a season-ending oblique injury on Sept. 2.
Anthony did nothing to dissuade the optimism that surrounded him when he excelled in the World Baseball Classic in March, being named an outfielder on the All-Tournament team. Playing for Team USA, which lost to Venezuela in the championship game, Anthony belted two homers and had a .920 OPS during the WBC.
Though Anthony got off to a slow start for the Red Sox this season (.229 average, one homer, five RBIs in 130 plate appearances), he looked like he was just starting to regain his rhythm before his injury.
While the Red Sox have surged over the last month and currently hold the second AL Wild Card spot, the lineup would clearly be bolstered if the 22-year-old Anthony can return down the stretch.