Red Sox calling up Roman Anthony, MLB's top prospect

The Boston Red Sox are calling up top prospect Roman Anthony two days after the 21-year-old outfielder hit a 497-foot grand slam for Triple-A Worcester.

Anthony, considered one of Boston’s “Big Three” prospects before the regular season along with rookies Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer, will make his major league debut Monday night at home against Tampa Bay, batting fifth and playing right field, manager Alex Cora said. Wilyer Abreu was placed on the IL as the corresponding move, per multiple reports.

A second-round pick in the 2022 amateur draft – one the Red Sox paid more like a first-round pick with a $2.5 million signing bonus – Anthony is batting .288 with 10 homers and 29 RBIs in 58 games this season. While there are some concerns about his short-term performance, as he’s been a bit overly passive at times in Triple-A, the long-term prospects for Anthony are still promising: he’s the consensus top prospect in the league for a reason, with the likes of MLB.com, Baseball America, and Baseball Prospectus all listing him No. 1 at the time of his promotion, with the expectation being that this is a future All-Star outfielder in the making.

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The second grand slam of the season for Anthony put Worchester ahead 9-4 in the eighth inning. He drove a 91.1 mph sinker from Carlos Romero deep over the right-center field wall, a drive that left his bat at 115.6 mph.

Anthony hit the longest home run measured this year by Statcast, which this season tracks the major leagues, Triple-A and the Class A Florida State League.

Since Statcast started tracking in the major leagues in 2015, only Nomar Mazara (505 feet in 2019), Giancarlo Stanton (504 feet in 2016), C.J. Cron (504 feet in 2022) and Christian Yelich (499 feet in 2022) have hit longer big league homers.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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