Boston Red Sox
Interim manager Chad Tracy backed both Mayer and Anthony earlier in the week.
Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer have been absent for Boston’s latest stretch of success. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)
The Red Sox are the hottest team in baseball, and whether by sheer coincidence or not, their success has occurred in the absence of both of their young stars, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer.
Anthony has been out since the beginning of May. Mayer’s injury is more recent, but he wasn’t playing particularly well in the weeks leading up to it.
Now both are out of the lineup, and a few veterans have made comments about how the Red Sox have been more focused, on and off the field, during this stretch.
Does that have anything to do with Anthony and Mayer? Maybe not. But according to MassLive’s Sean McAdam, some members of the organization are at the very least monitoring that situation.
“I find it hard to believe that there aren’t at least questions about both of them,” McAdam said on 98.5 The Sports Hub. “How deep and well-founded those are, I’m not sure. But I know that enough people are asking those questions.”
For what it’s worth, Boston’s interim manager Chad Tracy quickly shot down any concerns with Mayer and Anthony off the field.
“Not even remotely on my radar. Not something we’ve even talked about in here,” Tracy said. “I’ve tried to say here publicly the last couple days. I know that gets a lot of attention. Roman in particular is like, I’ve said it publicly: I want Roman healthy and I want Roman back. Roman’s a great baseball player. He’s a hell of a hitter. And he can help us. But, a hell of a hitter with two hands. Not with one. So, we have to get him healthy.”
Anthony and Mayer were two of the biggest prospects in recent Red Sox memory, and both had promising starts to their MLB careers in 2025. But neither has had the kind of sophomore year they would have likely hoped for, injuries or not.
And now that Boston is rolling with its current lineup iteration, it might be worth wondering how much value there is in keeping that current group as aligned as possible heading into the final months of the season. But if Anthony is ready to return for a playoff push, it’s hard to imagine the Red Sox will have any resistance to that.
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