{"id":124591,"date":"2025-08-06T21:20:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T21:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/124591\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T21:20:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T21:20:22","slug":"red-sox-extend-roman-anthony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/124591\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Extend Roman Anthony"},"content":{"rendered":"

4:20pm<\/strong>: The Sox have now officially announced that they have signed Anthony to an extension covering the 2026-33 seasons with a club option for 2034.<\/p>\n

11:38am<\/strong>: The Red Sox and outfielder Roman Anthony<\/a><\/strong> are finalizing an eight-year contract extension that will guarantee the 21-year-old $130MM, reports<\/a> ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan. The deal will cover the 2026-33 seasons and contain a club option for the 2034 campaign as well. Between the club option and a series of escalators, the deal can max out at $230MM. Anthony is represented by Frontline Athlete Management.<\/p>\n

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As things stand, the deal buys out all six of Anthony\u2019s initial seasons of club control, plus two free-agent years with an option over a third free-agent season. However, if Anthony finishes top two in American League Rookie of the Year voting, he\u2019d receive a full year of service for the current season, thus meaning the deal would lock in three free-agent years with a club option over a fourth. Presumably, some of the contract\u2019s escalators are tied to his finish in this year\u2019s balloting.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the exact number of free-agent years being bought out, the Sox now control Anthony all the way through 2034 \u2014 what will be his age-30 season. Barring future extensions or opt-out opportunities, he\u2019ll still be able to become a free agent ahead of his age-31 campaign, positioning him for another potential nine-figure contract down the road.<\/p>\n

Anthony\u2019s deal draws plenty of parallels to the eight-year, $111MM extension<\/a> Corbin Carroll<\/a><\/strong> signed with the D-backs in January of 2023. Both outfielders were regarded as the top prospect in the sport when they debuted in their age-21 seasons. Both found immediate success and quickly signed eight-year deals beginning with their age-22 seasons.<\/p>\n

As can be seen in MLBTR\u2019s Contract Tracker<\/a>, Anthony\u2019s contract becomes the third-largest guarantee ever given out to a player with under one year of major league service time. Julio Rodriguez\u2019s $210MM deal with the Mariners currently tops the list, though that agreement came when Rodriguez was much further into what would eventually be a Rookie of the Year-winning campaign in 2022.<\/p>\n

Selected with the No. 79 overall pick in the 2022 draft, Anthony stormed through the minor leagues, breaking out with a huge performance in High-A as a 19-year-old and never looking back. By measure of wRC+, he was at least 40% better than league-average with the bat at every stop from High-A through Triple-A, and he\u2019s carried over his outstanding production through his first 46 major league games.<\/p>\n

In 190 plate appearances as a big leaguer, Anthony is hitting .283\/.400\/.428 with a pair of homers, 15 doubles, a triple, two stolen bases, a 13.7% walk rate and a 24.7% strikeout rate. He\u2019s averaged a scorching 94.1 mph off the bat and seen a whopping 58% of his batted balls exit the bat traveling at least 95 mph. His overall power output has been muted by a 55.4% ground-ball rate, but Anthony elevated the ball more in the minors and figures to do so as he continues to acclimate to big league pitching, at which point he\u2019ll get to more of his plus-plus power. For now, the walk-heavy approach and plethora of doubles is getting the job done just fine; Anthony has been 33% better than average in the batter\u2019s box since arriving in the big leagues.<\/p>\n

Anthony doesn\u2019t possess elite contact skills but does make excellent swing decisions. His 73.1% overall contact rate and 81.6% contact rate on pitches within the zone are both four points below league-average, but Anthony\u2019s chase rate on balls off the plate (just 20.1%) is eight percentage points lower than average. Among the 292 hitters with at least 190 plate appearances in the majors this year, he\u2019s tied for the 19th-lowest chase percentage, per Statcast.<\/p>\n

On the defensive side of things, Anthony has split his time between the two outfield corners but spent more time in right. He\u2019s seen time in center field in the minors, but scouting reports on Anthony typically pegged him for a long-term home in one of the corners. His arm isn\u2019t elite but is at least average, if not a tick better. Anthony has drawn strong defensive grades for his work thus far (+5 Defensive Runs Saved, +4 Outs Above Average). He gives the Sox another talented defender to join the trio of Jarren Duran<\/a><\/strong>, Ceddanne Rafaela<\/a><\/strong> and Wilyer Abreu<\/a><\/strong>, all of whom are plus defenders in their own right.<\/p>\n

That glut of outfield talent \u2014 plus Masataka Yoshida<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s presence at DH \u2014 has long prompted speculation about a potential trade from the group. Duran and Abreu have seen their names kicked around the rumor mill dating back to the offseason. Boston would surely welcome the opportunity to escape some of the final two-plus years on Yoshida\u2019s five-year contract, which runs through 2027, but with $18.5MM salaries in each of the next two seasons, doing so is a tall order. Anthony was never going to be traded, and this new long-term arrangement only further solidifies him as a foundational piece for the Red Sox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"4:20pm: The Sox have now officially announced that they have signed Anthony to an extension covering the 2026-33…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":124592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,25270,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-124591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-roman-anthony","11":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114983916492368442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}