Romany Anthony, the fastest rising prospect in the Red Sox organization, belted his first Double-A homer Friday.
Anthony, a 19-year-old left-handed hitter, crushed a pitch from Reading left-hander David Parkinson, well over the fence in right field. The Portland Sea Dogs posted a video of the blast.
The Red Sox promoted Anthony and 2023 first round pick Kyle Teel to Portland on Monday.
Anthony went 1-for-3 with a homer and walk and Teel went 2-for-4 with two singles in Portland’s 5-2 loss.
Anthony has earned two promotions this year after beginning the season at Low-A Salem. He was promoted June 13 to High-A Greenville where he batted .294 with a .412 on-base percentage, .569 slugging percentage, .981 OPS, 12 homers, 14 doubles, three triples, 38 RBIs and 41 runs in 54 games. He walked 40 times (in 16.3% of his plate appearances) but he also had 75 strikeouts (30.6% strikeout percentage). His strikeout rate increased significantly over his final 34 games there but the Red Sox felt he was ready for Double A.
“I can’t speak enough about the type of young man he is,” director of player development Brian Abraham said last week on MassLive’s Fenway Rundown podcast before Anthony’s Double-A promotion. “His willingness to challenge himself, his willingness to put himself in baseball environments that are not ones that are always going to be successful, whether that be velo training, whether that be breaking ball training or doing different things that are going to force him to fail but ultimately get better. He has really been kind of one of our signature players when it comes to pushing himself, trying new things and being open-minded about what can help him improve.”
Baseball America ranks Anthony No. 19 on its Top 100 list. It has him as the No. 2 prospect in the Red Sox system behind Marcelo Mayer.
Boston selected him 79th overall in 2022. He was a compensation pick after the second round for the Red Sox losing Eduardo Rodriguez in free agency to Detroit.
“The athleticism in the outfield, the bat-to-ball on the offensive side and again, I think really impacting the baseball with an understanding of the strike zone,” Abraham said. “In a lot of ways, I just think he doesn’t miss the pitches he should drive and he lays off the pitches he should not swing at — to make it pretty simple. We saw some of those numbers happen in Salem kind of in the background. He was hitting the ball hard. He had really good strike zone recognition, good walk rate, low K rate — different things that led us to believe he was going to have success at the next level and he’s continued to do so in Greenville with more of the normal type of numbers everybody likes to see, whether it be the power, the extra-base hits. All those types of things that on our end we thought were coming because of the process, because of the work he was putting in. And he’s shown the ability to do that. Still certainly work to go but I’m excited because I think there’s still room for growth there. He’s willing to push himself to get there.”
