Being a Red Sox fan right now? It’s a special kind of pain. You watch your team lose heartbreaking one-run games (seventeen of ‘em, but who’s counting?!) and generally look lost at sea. The offense looks off-track, the playoffs feel like a mirage in the desert, and all the while, the consensus No. 1 prospect in all of freakin’ baseball, Roman Anthony, is down in Worcester launching baseballs into orbit.
So, what gives? That’s the question every member of Red Sox Nation is screaming. And now, ESPN’s Jeff Passan has publicly fired a warning shot at Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.
Let’s be crystal clear: Roman Anthony isn’t just “doing okay.” The kid is playing on another planet. This 21-year-old outfielder is hitting a cool .303, he’s already blasted eight homers, and his OPS is a ridiculous .941. And get this – he’s got nearly as many walks (45) as he has strikeouts (49)! That’s insane plate discipline for a young guy. Even Alex Cora said on WEEI that Anthony isn’t just “knocking at the door, he’s kicking it.”
So, why in the world is this phenom still riding buses in Triple-A instead of electrifying Fenway? That’s exactly what Jeff Passan went off about on the Section 10 Podcast, and he wasn’t holding anything back.
He laid it out plain and simple: The Red Sox probably need to hit around 85 to 87 wins just to even sniff that last playoff spot. And every single day Roman Anthony isn’t wearing a Boston uniform is a day he could have been the difference-maker. With that declaration, Passan’s voice was dripping with the same frustration fans feel.
Then Passan really dropped the hammer, the line that’s got everyone talking and Breslow probably sweating a little.
“Every day Roman Anthony’s not in the big leagues that’s a day that he could have won a game for this team.”@JeffPassan questions the lack of urgency from the Red Sox to call up Roman Anthony. pic.twitter.com/p8lIdEW1x8
— Section 10 Podcast (@Section10Pod) June 5, 2025
“And if at the end of the year, they fall two or three games short of the playoffs, God forbid one game short of it. You’re just going to look back on that and say, what a wasted opportunity that was.”
So, what’s Craig Breslow got to say about all this? Well, he’s out here preaching patience, trying to “block out the noise” from screaming fans. He told reporters the team is “trying to balance what’s best for Roman.” He admits it’s “impossible to ignore the performance he’s had in Triple A and how that is lining up with our struggles here in the big league level.” Ya think?!
But then he hits us with the classic front-office line. “We are also trying to be comfortable with the environment that we put him in.” Translation: Service time, development curves, don’t rush the kid… Even when the big-league team is desperate and Anthony looks like he was born ready for Fenway.
Now, to be fair, part of the puzzle is the outfield situation in Boston. Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Wilyer Abreu are holding down the fort. But they are falling short of their own high expectations, which is why most people want to see what Roman Anthony can do in a Red Sox uniform.
Is keeping Anthony down a gamble the Red Sox can’t afford?
As the team gears up to face their arch-rivals, the Yankees, this weekend, they are sitting at a depressing 30-34. Let that number just marinate for a second. Historically speaking, teams with that kind of lousy record through 64 games almost never sniff the playoffs. We’re talking like an 8 percent chance since the playoff format got bigger in 2022.
So, with the 2025 season already feeling like it’s circling the drain and trending towards another “wait ’til next year” pity party, what’s the worst that could happen if you call Anthony up? He struggles a bit? Newsflash: The entire team is already struggling!
But here’s where things get really messy for Craig Breslow and the Boston brain trust, a real head-scratcher of a dilemma: What do you do about Ceddanne Rafaela? While Roman Anthony is the offensive sparkplug everyone’s dying to see, Rafaela’s glove in center field is, by all accounts, absolutely indispensable. The guy patrols that notoriously tricky Fenway outfield like he’s got a GPS tracker on every fly ball, making insane highlight-reel catches look like just another Tuesday.
You can’t just toss that kind of elite, game-changing defense on the bench, especially when your pitching staff has been so up and down. So, the problem isn’t just making room for Anthony, it’s figuring out if bringing up your future offensive star means benching your current defensive wizard.
The outfield right now has Jarren Duran looking like a lock, with Wilyer Abreu and Rafaela filling out the other spots. If Anthony gets the call to Fenway, someone’s gotta move, or worse, sit. The idea that’s been kicked around, even by some folks in the media, is maybe trying to shift Rafaela to an infield position. No doubt – learning a whole new spot at the big-league level, especially mid-season, is a massive ask for anyone.
But it might be the only way to get Anthony’s potentially game-changing bat into the lineup without completely losing Rafaela’s incredible athletic contributions.
Trading one of the current outfielders, like Duran, is another option. But finding a trade partner willing to give up immediate, impactful help for this season might not turn into reality.
This whole situation is a strategic migraine for Breslow. The Red Sox are absolutely desperate for a catalyst, something, anything, to salvage what’s left of this season, even if it’s just giving the fans a taste of a brighter future. Roman Anthony could absolutely be that spark. But calling him up means making a really tough call on a valuable defensive player like Rafaela, or trying to pull off a trade that might not even make you better than what you are right now.
But as the losses keep piling up and the playoff math looks more and more like a cruel joke, Red Sox fans are probably screaming that the “right environment” for their number one prospect is right HERE in Boston.
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