Boston Red Sox fans waited nearly half the season for the No. 1 prospect in baseball, Roman Anthony, to be called up. Unfortunately, through the first 15 games of his career, it looked like we were witnessing another Jackson Holliday-level disappointment. Much like Holliday, who struggled mightily after being called up in April 2024 before being sent back down to the minors, Anthony was reeling a bit with the adjustment to the majors. In 55 plate appearances, he was slashing just .114/.291/.227/.518 with three extra-base hits. But now, the Roman Empire is here in full effect.
That 15th game of his young MLB career came on June 25. The Red Sox had an off day on the 26th before playing the rival Toronto Blue Jays the next night. And Anthony has been scorching hot, not just for a prospect, but to the level of a true star in baseball in the 10 games since then.
Over that span and 47 plate appearances, Anthony is slashing .386/.426/.568/.994 with five doubles, a home run and six RBI. He's also been a plus defender in right field and has been putting up these numbers at the plate despite the fact that he's been hitting second or third in the order for Boston, which is a ton of pressure for a player who, it's worth remembering, just turned 21 years old in May.
Because of his run, though, Anthony's batting average has gone from .114 to .250 on the season with his OPS climbing from .518 to .751 over that span. And though there's still a ton of 70 games left in the season for Anthony and Boston, I'm ready to declare that he's a truer No. 1 prospect than Holliday ever was.
Roman Anthony already looks more like a No. 1 prospect than Jackson Holliday has yet
Holliday's first look at the majors last season at 20 years old was an abject disaster, even worse than Anthony's tepid start. He had an .059 average and a .170 OPS through his first 10 games. Even when he returned and was admittedly better, it was still not star caliber production for the Orioles. Playing from July 31 through the end of the season, he hit .218 with a .650 OPS. Again, that was improvement, but it wasn't all that impressive on the whole.
He's undoubtedly taken another step forward in the 2025 season, hitting .260 with a .724 OPS with 11 home runs, 13 doubles, two triples and 36 RBI this season. Having said that, 25 games into his career while facing more pressure in Boston since the Rafael Devers trade than Holliday has in Baltimore, Anthony is already clearing those numbers this season, not to mention what he's done after showing clear adjustments at the plate following his early struggles in the big leagues.
The stats obviously back all of that up, but the eye test does too. When Holliday was called up by the Orioles last season, even for the second time, there were quite a few instances wherein the game looked just a step ahead of him and, thus, the player looked uncomfortable. Even when Anthony was slow out of the gate, that was never the look he showed. Alex Cora and anyone with eyes praised him for his calmness and approach at the plate immediately, and that's only improved since then.
Obviously, a lot can change from a 25-game sample size, much less this 10-game hot streak. Hell, even in Boston, they're acutely aware of that after Kristian Campbell won AL Rookie of the Month in April after a torrid start only to crash and burn over the next couple of months and get optioned back to Triple-A.
At the same, there's a reason that even people outside of Red Sox fandom were calling for Anthony to be called up to Boston from Triple-A. He was clearly ready with a pro-ready approach, pro-ready pop, and just the full look of a major-league player. That's why he was the No. 1 prospect, and he's now looking the part arguably far more than Holliday ever has with any kind of consistency. In terms of getting a win over your rivals, that's one that Red Sox fans will take every day, especially with what it means for the future in Boston.