Baseball America: Roman Anthony elevated to the game’s No. 1 prospect; ‘He’s a hell of a player and hell of a person’
Roman Anthony is now the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball.
Following the “graduation” of Tampa Bay Rays infielder Junior Caminero on Tuesday, Anthony was appointed the No. 1 prospect on Baseball America’s top 100 list.
“It’s nice anytime that you can get recognized,” Anthony said. “I think going back to last year, when I started to kind of get on the map and then rolling into this year, just keeping that going, I think any sort of recognition is always nice, just being recognized for the work that is put in every day.”
Anthony has been red hot in 25 games since joining the Triple-A Worcester. The left-hander is hitting .340 with three homers and 14 RBI while playing all three outfield spots for Worcester.
“Anytime you’re being honored like that, that’s not just like, oh, the Red Sox; that’s (all of) whole minor league baseball, and that’s evaluators and people across the entire industry that have made that their choice and how they view those kids,” said WooSox manager Chad Tracy prior to the WooSox’ game Wednesday. “So, it’s a high honor and well deserved, by the way. He’s a hell of a player and a hell of a person.”
According to J.J. Cooper of Baseball America, if Anthony remains the top prospect in their rankings, then the 20-year-old will become the third Red Sox prospect to rank No. 1 in the 35-year history of the baseball publication’s top 100 list.
The other two Red Sox players that were ranked No. 1 overall by Baseball America were right-handed pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2007 and outfielder Andrew Benintendi in 2017.
In addition to Anthony sitting atop the rankings, the Sox have Marcelo Mayer (No. 10), Kristian Campbell (No. 24), and Kyle Teel (No. 25) in the top 25, with infield prospect Franklin Arias ranked No. 92 in baseball.
On Wednesday morning, Anthony received a text from another former No. 1 prospect in baseball, Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday. He congratulated his close friend on the honor of being ranked No. 1 by Baseball America.
“We’ve been texting a little bit lately because he’s in Boston right now, so he’s not too far away, but he shot me a text this morning, and it’s obviously nice,” Anthony said. “He was in (this) situation not too long ago, and now he’s making an impact in the big leagues, and it’s nice to hear from him, always.”
“Obviously, pretty special to be able to share that with him. I always knew that he was that caliber of a player,” said Holliday to reporters, including Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. “Obviously, now he’s killing Triple A at a super young age. It’s pretty fun to watch and extremely impressive to see what he’s done. . . . He’s a center fielder that’s got extreme power and a really good overall hitter. Whenever you can be a good hitter and add strength and power like he has, it’s a very special combination.”
Holliday made his big league debut this season, initially going 2-for-34 in his first 10 games before being sent down to Triple-A Norfolk.
“I’m sure whenever he makes his debut, he’s gonna have to go through certain stuff that I had to,” said Holliday. “There are a lot of really good players. To think that you’re the number one prospect, it means a lot, and it’s a really special thing that I get to share, I guess, with him now. . . . The advice that I would give him, and I’m sure that I’ll be able to talk to him, is just go out and play. It doesn’t really matter at the end of the day. It’s just something cool that I guess you get to have under your name. But I think he’s done a really good job just kind of trying to get up here as fast as possible.”
