You’re never too young, too famous, or too talented to get hazed for hiding in a laundry cart. Just ask Roman Anthony.
In a move straight out of the Taylor Swift playbook, the Boston Red Sox’s top prospect sparked a social media flare-up this week when video surfaced of him being rolled out of Polar Park in a laundry bin – all in an apparent attempt to avoid fans on his way to the team bus after the Worcester Red Sox Triple-A game on Sunday.
It was playful. It was weird. It was, depending on who you ask, either genius or disrespectful.
But one thing it wasn’t? Quiet.
“I was just joking around,” Anthony told reporters on Tuesday after the video went viral. “Didn’t think it would be that big of a deal.”
Roman Anthony Addresses Backlash From Hiding in Laundry Cart to Avoid Fans
The internet disagreed. Pretty vehemently.
One user on X (formerly Twitter) wrote, “Too good to say hi to people that have stood outside waiting to see him. Not cool.”
Another chimed in, “Are you trying to make us hate #romananthony before he even gets to Boston? If he can’t handle 10 Worcester fans he will never survive in Boston”
A third said, “This video is a disappointment on so many levels. I get its trying to be funny but it pokes at some big issues. Certainly not professional behavior.”
It was supposed to be a light moment. Instead, it became a Rorschach test for everything fans feel – good and bad – about the modern minor-league superstar.
And Roman Anthony, for better or worse, is very much that.
Anthony, who turned 21 on May 13, is tearing the cover off the ball in Worcester. Entering Thursday’s game, he is slashing .296/.422/.493 with nine home runs and a .915 OPS, showing off the advanced approach that has scouts and executives convinced he’ll be a future All-Star in Boston.
The only question is, why isn’t Anthony already playing at Fenway Park?
Roman Anthony Remains in Triple-A While Red Sox Struggle for Wins
He is the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball, has been for a while, and all Anthony has done at the Triple-A level is prove that he should not still be at the Triple-A level. Appearing Thursday on the Red Sox-focused Section 10 podcast, Jeff Passan of ESPN questioned the lack of urgency from a Red Sox team, picked by many to win the AL East, that is struggling at 30-34, 9.0 games behind the Yankees for the division lead and 4.0 games out of the final wild card spot.
“It’s probably going to take 85 to 87 wins to get that last playoff spot, and every day Roman Anthony is not in the big leagues, that’s a day that he could have won a game for this team,” Passan said. “Every day he hits a home run in Worcester in the ninth inning to walk it off, whatever it is, that’s a day he could have been doing it with the Boston Red Sox, and at the end of the year, they fall two or three games short of the playoffs, God forbid one game short of it, they’re just going to look back on it and say, ‘What a wasted opportunity that was.’”
And yet, team officials are still preaching patience. Asked on Tuesday by the hosts of the afternoon show on WEEI Sports Radio Network, Red Sox manager Alex Cora acknowledged that Anthony is “kicking” in the door to the major leagues, but for whatever reason, the team is not ready to help him open it.
“Roman is doing well. He’s getting better,” Cora replied. “As of now, this is the roster that we have and we are gonna continue to maximize that.”
It’s that kind of patience that drives fans nuts, especially as the team stumbles through a disappointing season and struggles to find consistency in the outfield. Jarren Duran has cooled off. Wilyer Abreu has been streaky. Ceddanne Rafaela has not progressed offensively as the team would have liked.
And yet, Anthony remains in Triple-A – hiding in carts, not in right field at Fenway.
