The Boston Red Sox are arguably the hottest team in baseball right now, winners of nine of their last 10 and suddenly breathing down the necks of the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East. And that hot streak continued off the field on Wednesday, when ESPN's Jeff Passan broke the news that Boston had locked up star rookie outfielder Roman Anthony to an eight-year, $130 million contract extension.
BREAKING: Outfielder Roman Anthony and the Boston Red Sox are finalizing an eight-year, $130 million contract extension, sources tell ESPN. The deal, which is pending a physical, includes a club option and will keep Anthony under team control through 2034.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 6, 2025
The deal, which also includes a club option, will begin in 2026, with escalators that could kick the total value all the way up to $230 million. If all goes well, it would keep Anthony in Boston through at least the 2034 season, buying out four years of free agency in the process.
That might seem like a big commitment to a player who just turned 21 in May and has all of 190 big-league plate appearances under his belt. But it's hard to argue that Anthony isn't worth it: He's been on a meteoric rise since being taken in the second round of the 2022 MLB Draft, and his rookie season has been simply sensational, with a .949 OPS over his last 31 games. His approach at the plate (an elite 13.7% walk rate) and the damage he does on contact (top-of-the-scale average exit velocity) sure make him seem like a star in the making, one who might only get better from here.
But even beyond the benefit of locking up a young player with a sky-high ceiling, this deal marks a significant moment in Red Sox history. The last time Boston had a homegrown outfielder like this, they chose the cheaper route and lived to regret it. Thankfully, John Henry and Co. have finally learned their lesson from losing Mookie Betts.
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Roman Anthony deal should finally put the ghost of Mookie Betts' departure to rest
Betts wasn't quite the all-world prospect Anthony was, but it was almost immediately obvious he'd be a star in the Majors, earning MVP votes in his first full season in Boston. And yet, despite his five-tool production, the Red Sox refused to get out ahead of the big contract that everyone knew was coming. Henry and Chaim Bloom were too enamored by the thought of Betts playing on the cheap, so they took that short-term gain and in the process risked everything.
That risk blew up in their face when Betts' asking price became too much for the team (rightly or wrongly) to stomach. At that point, it was too late to put the genie back in the bottle: Betts was dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers before his walk year, a disastrous deal that the Red Sox and their fans have regretted ever since.
It's not often that the baseball gods give you a second chance, but Boston gets one here. It's almost impossible to poke holes in Anthony's profile; he's likely going to be an All-Star for years to come, at the very least. The Red Sox could've exercised their leverage and let Anthony play out the first few years of his career for pennies on the dollar. Instead, they finally wised up, paying Anthony more than what they had to now in the hopes that it'll become a bargain down the road — one that ensures they won't have to worry about losing him for a long, long time.