The Boston Red Sox have a decision to make.
Do they use MLB’s playoff roster injury replacement rules to take Roman Anthony off their AL Wild Card Series roster? Or do they hope Anthony can still contribute as they try to rally from a 1-0 deficit to the New York Yankees.
They don’t have much time to make the choice. The Red Sox play a potential elimination game on Wednesday night in Yankee Stadium.
Boston had to remove Anthony from Tuesday’s Game 1 after hurting himself on a check swing.
“He took a check-swing and then another swing and his hand flared on him,” Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said after the game, via WEEI. “And it got uncomfortable, so we had to make a move there.”
Anthony missed more than 100 games in the regular season because he had a torn ligament in his right ring finger.
Another ailment to his hand, whether exactly the same or not, isn’t a good sign.
There is a mechanism for Boston to replace Anthony, but it would come with a cost.
MLB Playoff Roster Injury Replacement Rules
This is how the rule reads, word for word, from the MLB website:
“In the event of a player injury, a club may request permission from the commissioner’s office to replace said player during the course of a series, but that player is ineligible to play for the rest of that round and the subsequent round, if there is one. A pitcher must be replaced by another pitcher, and a position player must be replaced by another position player.”
In a practical sense, this means the Red Sox replacing Anthony would keep him out for the rest of the Yankees series, and if they advance, he also wouldn’t be able to play in the ALDS.
Anthony would then be eligible to return in the ALCS if Boston got that far.
It amounts similarly to a 10-day injured list stint, although the IL doesn’t function like that during the playoffs, so these are the rules instead.
A team submits a roster for each round, and it stays the same except in the case where a team pursues this route.
Who Would Replace Roman Anthony?
The name being floated the most as a replacement for Anthony is the speedster Braiden Ward.
Some thought that Ward would be on the roster for the Wild Card Series from the beginning as a pinch-running specialist, but he didn’t quite make the cut.
This situation would allow the Red Sox to make that move, if they wanted.
Ward stole 61 bases in 70 attempts at Triple-A Worcester this season.
As for others: Romy Gonzalez and Masataka Yoshida both seem to be battling injuries that wouldn’t allow them to be available, but if one of them has healed enough, they could also be a consideration for Anthony.
How MLB Playoff Injury Replacement Rules Work For Red Sox’s Roman Anthony