The injury to the Red Sox' 21-year-old superstar opens up an opportunity for some players to step up.
The Boston Red Sox enter a seven-game homestand riding high off of their first sweep of the 2026 season in Detroit. Ahead of Thursday night's series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays the team announced that outfielder Roman Anthony would in fact require a trip to the injured list as a result of the right wrist sprain that had kept him out of the lineup for the final two games in Detroit.
Anthony suffered the injury during the first inning of Monday night's game against the Tigers, fouling off a pitch and immediately flexing his right hand. After taking the field in the bottom of the first, Anthony was ultimately pulled from the game and sent back to Boston for evaluation, where he was diagnosed with a wrist sprain. After initially saying he would not require a trip to the injured list, interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters ahead of Thursday night's game that it no longer made sense to continue playing a man short on the bench. Utilityman Mickey Gasper was recalled from Triple-A Worcester to take his spot on the active roster.
Anthony's injury presents an opportunity for one of the other four members of Boston's outfield logjam to step up in his place.
Who could step up?
Outfielder/Designated Hitter Masataka Yoshida figures to have the most to gain as a result of the injury to Anthony. The 32-year-old has seen his playing time greatly diminished in the 10 games under Tracy, finding himself relegated to an almost exclusive bench role. Despite getting only two starts in the 10 games since the managerial change, Yoshida has performed well in his limited opportunities, batting .500 in 12 at-bats over almost two weeks since Tracy took over, including a two-hit day in the series finale in Detroit. Yoshida is back in the starting lineup on Thursday night. He'll be the designated hitter and bat fifth.
Yoshida alone cannot replace Anthony's production at the plate; Boston will need one of their other key bats to step up in his absence. After a torrid start to the season, right fielder Wilyer Abreu cooled off significantly at the plate. Abreu showed signs of snapping out of his funk during the Red Sox sweep of the Tigers, batting .308 with his first home run in 11 games.
Left fielder Jarren Duran has been one of the biggest disappointments of the year for Boston. His .190 batting average and wRC+ of 58 both rank in the bottom 15 among qualified hitters. Duran showed signs of life over the last week, batting .259 with an OPS of .926, including a go-ahead home run on Monday night to help the Red Sox mount their largest comeback victory of the season.
Getting Duran going is the biggest X-Factor for the Red Sox, not only in Anthony's absence, but through the rest of the season as Boston looks to dig itself out of the massive hole it got itself into over the first month.
The Red Sox will look to extend their winning streak to four on Thursday night, welcoming the Rays to Fenway Park for the four-game series. Rookie lefty Jake Bennett will make the second start of his big league career opposite Griffin Jax for the Rays. First pitch from Fenway Park set for 7:10 p.m. ET.
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