The Boston Red Sox have made some roster moves before Thursday’s series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Boston is set to begin a four-game series at home against the Rays on Thursday over the weekend, but the Red Sox will be without star hitter Roman Anthony. Anthony has been dealing with a wrist injury, and now he’s been placed on the IL, and Mickey Gasper has been recalled.
“Chad Tracy says Roman Anthony is going on the IL and Mickey Gasper will fill his spot on the roster. Says Anthony hasn’t experienced any setbacks but they expect he’ll be out long enough that they can’t justify playing shorthanded,” Red Sox reporter Mac Cerullo wrote on X.
Anthony suffered an injury to his wrist on Monday and flew back to Boston to see a specialist on Tuesday. Luckily, the X-rays came back negative, but Anthony is still sore, and the team has decided to place him on the 10-day injured list.
Anthony is hitting .229 with 1 home run and 5 RBIs, as he has gotten off to a slow start. Gasper, meanwhile, is a catcher/first baseman who spent the 2025 season with the Minnesota Twins after spending the 2024 season in the Red Sox’s organization.
Gasper has appeared in 58 career games, 14 with Boston and 45 with Minnesota, hitting .133 with 2 home runs and 11 RBIs.
Anthony Discusses Injury
Anthony took one swing of his bat, and his reaction prompted the trainers to come out and look at him.
After being removed from the game, Anthony spoke to reporters and admitted he wasn’t exactly sure what happened.
I just took a swing and it didn’t feel good,” said Anthony. “And as I came back in and went under to continue to swing, it just was painful. … There’s nothing swollen, really, like visible on the outside. But again, I don’t know much about the hand. I’ve never dealt with a hand anything. So again, I’ll leave that up to the hand specialist to see what he’s got.”
The hope was that the injury to Anthony would only be considered day-to-day, and he wouldn’t need an IL stint, and could return in a day or two. However, that didn’t happen and now the Red Sox have placed Anthony on the injured list.
“The thing is, even with a sprain, it’s still going to be reactive on how it is feeling, and how is it progressing,” said Tracy. “That’s good news, but we still have to see how he feels over the next couple of days. To know that something happened, and we don’t see a break, and we don’t see any structural (damage) right now. But again, there’s still steps to take to make sure that he feels good and healthy.”
Anthony was expected to be a key part of the Red Sox’s offense this season.
Red Sox Coming Off Sweep of Tigers
Boston’s season isn’t off to a great start, but the Red Sox did sweep the Detroit Tigers.
It was a great performance from Boston, and Tracy is pleased with how the team played.
“It’s been a good (three days),” said Tracy. “The series was good. We did a lot of a lot of things right, we played great defensively, we ran the bases extremely well. We got the clutch hits that have been missing, we pitched extremely well. So it was a really good short trip.”
Boston will now take on the Rays for four games at Fenway Park. The Red Sox are 16-21.
Red Sox Announce Pair of Roster Moves Before Rays Game