Roman Anthony injury is Red Sox fans' nightmare but Craig Breslow's unforgivable excuse

Roman Anthony left Monday's game between the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers after his first at-bat of the day at Comerica Park. A fouled-off check swing seemed to leave him in some discomfort as he worked with the trainers and interim manager Chad Tracy for some time. However, he finished the at-bat and drew a walk. After the inning concluded, though, the Red Sox elected to remove him from the game with what the team is calling "right wrist discomfort."

Anthony was replaced by Masataka Yoshida in left field. And really, the early diagnosis of wrist discomfort is so vague that it's impossible to know if this will result in an IL stint or if it's just precautionary. Red Sox fans are certainly hoping for the latter after a brutal start to the 2026 season, though, as losing Anthony would truly feel like a nightmare. Yet, it might also be what Craig Breslow was hoping for all along with the unresolved outfield logjam.

Losing Roman Anthony for substantial time would doom the Red Sox further

Obviously, Anthony has been part of the problem to start the year with the Red Sox offense looking lifeless overall. After a torrid debut last season (before an oblique injury ended his year early), he entered Monday with just one home run and a .681 OPS on the season, which is far less than what anyone expected from him coming into the year. At the same time, though, he's also part of any solution.

If Boston is going to climb out of the massive early-season hole they dug themselves, Anthony getting on track is going to be part of that. While he's still just 21 years old, he's quite clearly the most talented offensive player and the spark that the lineup needs to really get going, regardless of if he's leading off or hitting lower in the order.

But if this injury turns out to be anything serious, that goes completely out of the window. A turnaround isn't impossible necessarily, but it becomes even less likely than it already is at this point. Anthony is that important to making this all work for the Red Sox. So, obviously, we're all hoping that this is indeed precautionary and that it doesn't mean that he misses any substantial time at all, especially not on the IL.

Well, at least that's what most people in the Red Sox atmosphere are feeling. Breslow, however, at least appears like someone who might be feeling differently.

Why Craig Breslow's flaws are obvious with a Roman Anthony injury

Let me be clear: I'm not claiming that Craig Breslow or anyone is rooting for injuries to happen to the Boston Red Sox this season. What I am saying is that it seems like the Chief Baseball Officer's plan to sort out the outfield has been to simply wait for one of the involved players to get hurt.

In theory, there is some reason to that thought process. You don't want the team to just give away good players, and the old adage will tell you that there's no such thing as having too many good players. However, the Red Sox are, at minimum, the exception to that. Their outfield rotation has struggled to find a rhythm, and the surplus at the position with Anthony, Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela and Masataka Yoshida essentially forces them to lose versatility with the lineup construction because of the roster spots being taken up.

Anthony (or any of the quintet) going down would solve that problem, at least temporarily, for Breslow and not force him to make a move. But really, that's just fully indicative of the problem with the current regime running the Red Sox and that just ran Alex Cora (et. al) out of town.

Breslow has been intent on trying to win every deal, both in the trade market and in free agency. That's why he chose not to trade Duran this offseason as numerous reports indicated that he and the team overvalued the veteran outfielder in negotiations. Thus, it's why the outfield logjam has remained a problem for this team in the first month plus of the 2026 season. And it's why the front office has since been left to wait for an injury to resolve the matter.

That's no way to run a team, though, especially one as proud and with the resources of the Red Sox. And maybe that's the problem at its core. I certainly hope Roman Anthony is okay and the injury is nothing serious, but it also once again exposes the poor process being used to build this team since Breslow took over.

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