As Roman Anthony enters his first full season in the majors, the Boston Red Sox just seem to be heaping more on the youngster's plate.
Anthony was fantastic in year one, putting up an .859 OPS and 3.1 bWAR in 71 games. He finished third in American League Rookie of the Year voting, and at age 21, he was named as a replacement to the Team USA roster for the upcoming World Baseball Classic. Awfully impressive for a kid who had just a month of Triple-A experience at this time a year ago.
But that's just the point, because the Red Sox are counting on Anthony to essentially spearhead the offense this year. In particular, the departure of Alex Bregman left him not only without an important mentor, but also lacking a right-handed bat to provide protection in the No. 2 slot in the lineup.
However, on Monday, Anthony said that the weight of the expectations to deliver without Bregman in town isn't bothering him too much.
“That’s fine. Like I said earlier, we have so many great players, so I’m not really worried about that at all, not really worried about anything like that, never really was," Anthony said (via @RedSox on X). Just gonna continue to learn from my teammates around me, and find ways to make everyone better."
Anthony has passed every test to this point in his development, but Major League Baseball is incredibly hard for everyone. There are bound to be struggles at some point, even if they only last a week or so, as they did for the youngster at the very beginning of his career.
So, as ready as Anthony certainly thinks he is to help shoulder the load, the Red Sox are going to need bigger seasons from a lot of their returning contributors as well.