Roman Anthony Likely Why Red Sox Didn't Bolster Offense, Per Insider

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The Boston Red Sox did not improve their offense much this offseason, aside from trading for Willson Contreras, and it has shown this season.

Contreras has been excellent for Boston this season, but has been one of the team's only consistent offensive players. The Red Sox's offense is dealing with multiple injuries to key players like Trevor Story and Roman Anthony, but it still struggled even when those players were healthy.

Boston pulled off a blockbuster trade last season, sending away Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants right before calling Anthony up to the big leagues. The former No. 1 prospect impressed for the Red Sox last season, slashing .292/.396/.463 with eight home runs and 32 RBIs across 71 games in his rookie campaign, quickly becoming the face of the Red Sox's franchise.

Even before going down with an injury that's held him out of action for over a month, Anthony has struggled this season. The Athletic's Jen McCaffrey believes it's likely that the Red Sox failed to bolster their offense after the Devers trade with the hope that Anthony would have already emerged as a star.

"The Red Sox likely predicted Anthony would have emerged by now as a key bat for the top of the order, a reason why they only added Contreras this winter," McCaffrey wrote on Monday. "Instead, Anthony has missed significant time due to two injuries since debuting one week before the Devers deal last year.

"He missed the final 22 games of the regular season, as well as the three wild-card games with an oblique strain and has been out since May 7 with a sprained right ring finger that’s made swinging a bat without pain difficult. In 101 career games, Anthony is batting .273 with an .804 OPS, but in 30 games before this season’s injury, he hit .229 with a .675 OPS. Not only did the Red Sox trade away Devers and not replace his bat in a meaningful way, but they also didn’t properly assess or unlock the potential of two players they acquired."

Boston did make attempts to sign top offensive players this offseason, targeting Alex Bregman, Bo Bichette and Pete Alonso, but was unable to sign any of them. Even if Anthony returns to form when he makes his return to the field, the Red Sox will still need to do more to improve the offense.

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