Roman Anthony: MLB's No. 1 Prospect

There's a new No. 1 following Junior Caminero's graduation. We dive deep on Roman Anthony's rise, plus prospects to watch in Bowman Chrome 2024 and how the Red Sox and other MLB teams are utilizing Trajekt.

Author

Mark Chiarelli
September 11, 2024

Roman Anthony Is MLB’s New No. 1 Prospect

There’s a new No. 1 prospect in baseball, as Junior Caminero graduated last night.

So we welcome Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony to the top of the Baseball America Top 100 Prospects list.

Anthony will assuredly remain in this spot for the remainder of the 2024 season. He’s in Triple-A and will not exhaust his rookie/prospect eligibility this season. This also puts him in pole position to be our No. 1 prospect on our offseason Baseball America Top 100, which we will unveil in January 2025.

If Anthony remains No. 1, he will become the third Red Sox prospect to rank No. 1 in the now 35-year history of the BA Top 100. Righthander Daisuke Matsuzaka ranked No. 1 in 2007, and outfielder Andrew Benintendi ranked No. 1 in 2017.

The first Baseball America Top 100 was unveiled in 1990, and for more than a decade, it was updated only once a year.

In the 2000s, we started to do a top 25, then a top 50 and eventually a top 100 at the midseason, and we now update the Top 100 each month during the MiLB season, but we treat the offseason list, which gives us the time to do the most reporting and analysis, as our “official” list for archival purposes.

So how did Anthony arrive at this point? We’re glad you asked.

📈 Roman’s Initial Rise: The Red Sox drafted Anthony, our No. 72 draft prospect in the 2022 class, at No. 79 overall in 2022. He entered the 2023 season as Boston’s No. 9 prospect after immediately standing out for his mature professional at-bats despite his youth and double-plus raw power, albeit with some questions about the hit tool as he advanced.

Scouts who saw Anthony early last year believed he was quickly putting some of those questions to rest. Baseball America’s Josh Norris first identified Anthony as a potential riser in early May. Here’s what he wrote at the time.

“Anthony’s numbers this season might not jump off the page, but scouts who have seen him believe the ingredients are there for a potentially special player. He has a gorgeous swing from the left side, an outstanding knowledge of the strike zone and raw power that belies his meager slugging output this year at Low-A Salem. That raw juice also shows up in his 90th percentile exit velocity, which hovers around 108 mph. For that power to really begin manifesting itself on the stat sheet, he’ll need to get the ball in the air much more often. Nonetheless, the 18-year-old Anthony has shown a lot of positive markers in his first full season as a pro.”

That proved prescient.

Anthony’s underlying data only got prettier from there. By season’s end, he was Boston’s Minor League Player of the Year.

🏆️ Another Leap In 2024: Anthony didn’t sneak up on anyone this season. He entered the year ranked No. 2 in Boston’s system and among the top 25 prospects in baseball. Yet Double-A managers still lauded Anthony’s collection of skills, praising him for his power, contact ability and patient swing decisions. The positive feedback only continued upon arriving in Triple-A. Baseball America’s Geoff Pontes sat recently sat down with Anthony in Worcester for an extended conversation, which included…

  • Anthony’s ability to adjust from slow starts

  • Shaping his game to become more than just a slugger

  • How he has used Boston’s player dev resources to hone his approach

🤔 Some Context: This is one of those rare times where there is not a clear-cut No. 1 or a clear-cut grouping of No. 1 candidates. Caminero, James Wood and Paul Skenes were all relatively easy choices. We now face an offseason where we will spend a lot of time reporting and analyzing who should be our No. 1 prospect heading into the 2025 season. But Anthony's combination of tools, skills and upper-level production as one of the youngest players in Double-A and now Triple-A has him in the pole position as we head into the offseason.

➡️ So what comes next? With Caminero’s graduation, the Red Sox currently have four Top 25 prospects as well, with Anthony (No. 1), Marcelo Mayer (No. 10), Kristian Campbell (No. 24) and Kyle Teel (No. 25). 

The Red Sox were also the last team to have four prospects rank in the top 25 of the offseason Top 100. Yoan Moncada, Andrew Benintendi, Rafael Devers and Anderson Espinoza all ranked within the Top 25 in 2016.

Boston will contend for the top spot in our farm system rankings. Anthony, who most evaluators contend will still shift to a corner, even if Boston continues to play him in center field, appears to have few questions left to answer in the minors. Along with the rest of Boston’s big four, Anthony could very soon become one of the faces of the next wave of talent to hit Boston and help the Red Sox return to more consistent World Series contention.

ENJOYING THE BA NEWSLETTER? FORWARD TO YOUR FRIENDS! NEW READERS CAN SIGN UP HERE.

2024 BOWMAN CHROME

Here’s What We’re Hunting In Bowman Chrome 2024

Today’s release of Bowman Chrome is one of the most anticipated days of the year for collectors, especially those on the lookout for prospects and rookie cards. So which prospects are worth holding? Matt Pajak highlights a handful of players who stand out to him, plus some information on the autograph checklist, a fun new insert and where you can buy your own set.

HERE’S WHAT’S TRENDING AT BASEBALL AMERICA….

BA SOCIAL

Soak it all in, Red Sox fans.

INTERESTED IN SUBSCRIBING TO BASEBALL AMERICA?

Join the thousands of fans, players, coaches and front office personnel who are the backbone of the Baseball America community by subscribing today.

SIGN UP FOR THE BASEBALL AMERICA PROSPECT REPORT NEWSLETTER

Sign up for our free daily Baseball America Prospect Report newsletter to receive updates on top prospect performers, news & more from the night before.