4:23 p.m.: MLB has officially announced the move, with Mead replacing Anthony. 4:15 p.m.: Mead will replace Anthony, according to ESPN’s Jorge Castillo. 3:34 p.m.: The Red Sox will remove outfielder Roman Anthony from their roster due to his hand injury. He has multiple new hand strains and an aggravation of the injury he suffered earlier this year. Curtis Mead and Anthony Seigler are candidates to replace him. The league has not yet approved the transaction. As a general rule, a player removed from a playoff roster during one series must also miss the following series, so Anthony will be ineligible for the ALDS if the Sox advance. WEEI’s Rob Bradford, MassLive’s Chris Cotillo and MLB.com’s Ian Browne were among those relaying the details. The hand injury really soured Anthony’s second season. He debuted last year and posted an excellent line of .292/.396/.463 in his first 71 games in the Major Leagues. Along the way, the Red Sox signed him to a $130 million extension. Ideally, he would have been even better in his second major league season, but that hasn’t happened. His wrist and hand problems left him on the disabled list for nearly four months of the regular season. He was only able to play in 55 regular season games and in them he hit .245/.339/.396. The official diagnosis for his placement on IL in May was a sprained right wrist, but Anthony said it was actually a torn ligament in his right ring finger. It was initially thought to be a minor problem, but it persisted for most of the season. He returned to the field in September and made the wild card list, but came out of last night’s game in more pain. Now it looks like it could be in a worse situation than in May. “He was sent back last night after leaving the game,” manager Chad Tracy said today, according to Cotillo. “We sent him back to Boston for additional imaging which actually revealed some new strains in different muscles in his wrist, in addition to exasperating old injuries. Not great.” For now, the Sox will focus on staying alive. They lost last night’s match and are now on the brink of elimination. Anthony was the designated hitter last night and the Sox had an outfield with Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Jarren Durán. With left-hander Max Fried on the hill for the Yankees, Nate Eaton replaced Durán to start tonight’s contest. Jahmai Jones is at designated hitter. Mead or Seigler will join the bank once the transaction is formally approved. Maybe Anthony can be a factor in the ALCS and World Series if the Red Sox survive, but the injury sounds pretty ominous. Given that his previous absence was for several months and this one looks worse, it would be a surprise if he was healthy enough to play in a few weeks, although the Sox have not yet explicitly ruled him out for the season. At some point, whether because Anthony will be shut down for the year or at the end of the club’s season, the focus will shift to the future. The Sox and Anthony will have to figure out how to get his hand back to normal, whether that involves surgery or some other path forward. Photo courtesy of Eric Canha, Imagn Images
