About 90 minutes before the first pitch of the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night, rookie sensation Roman Anthony sat in a custom-made suit at a table in Boston’s media room. He was there, along with team CEO Sam Kennedy and chief baseball office Craig Breslow, to announce his new eight-year, $130 million contract, that will keep him “The Hub” until he is about thirty years old.
At just 21 years of age, Roman Anthony has become a centimillionaire. Not bad work for a guy who just two months ago was in Triple-A and who has played only 47 career games. With the signing, Boston’s “Roman Empire” has officially begun.
But the long-term deal should not come as a surprise to Red Sox Nation or baseball fans outside of New England. Anthony entered the season as Keith Law’s No. 1 prospect, and is slashing .276/.392/.417 after getting off to a slow start (through his first 10 games, he was hitting .097, with just three hits and one home run; that, despite hitting at least five balls more than 100 MPH, and 15 more than 90 MPH). Since then, all he has done is slash .318/.430/.462, with 42 hits in 37 games. He has been an anchor in the Red Sox lineup, where manager Alex Cora now has him hitting leadoff.
The extension is also in keeping with what the club has done as of late. Last season they signed 26-year-old pitcher Brayan Bello to a six-year, $55 million contract after just two big league seasons. The next month they locked up future Gold Glove centerfielder (when he is not playing above-average second base) Ceddanne Rafaela with an eight-year, $50 million deal. This was signed after he played in just 28 games.
After Boston made a big off-season splash to acquire Garrett Crochet from the Chicago White Sox, they doubled down nearly immediately, giving him a six-year, $160 million extension. According to The MLB.com, that is the largest contract ever given to a pitcher with just four years of service time.
And then, after playing just five games in the majors, the Red Sox signed infielder Kristian Campbell to an eight-year deal for $60 million. The long-term commitment didn’t save Campbell from being demoted to Triple-A after he got off to a rough start (.223/.319/.345, with -0.8 bWAR through 67 games).
After losing Mookie Betts – the team claimed he turned down a 10/$300 million offer, he claimed that never happened – the Red Sox are loathe to allow any potential franchise players to leave via free agency. It is for that reason they signed Rafael Devers to a 10-year, $313.5 million deal in 2024, which gave them the right/control to ship him off to San Francisco in June, making the team the scorner not the scornee.
With respect to Anthony, the Red Sox broached the idea of a long-term deal with his reps prior to the season, but the player was not yet ready to commit, having not yet even taken a single at-bat at Fenway Park. After the trade deadline, Breslow reached out with a new proposal, which got Anthony’s attention. At his pre-game press conference, the left-handed slugger said, “When the offer came through, it was something that I wanted to move quick on. There was no doubt that this is where I wanted to play baseball for a long time.”
The new deal buys out Anthony’s arbitration years as well as three years of free agency, at an average annual value of $16.25 million. Boston is paying a $5 million signing bonus and has a $30 million club option for 2034, when Anthony will be just thirty years old. Taking a page from Julio Rodriguez’s 2022 deal with the Seattle Mariners, according to Spotrac and Alex Speier of The Boston Globe, the current contract includes various and sundry escalators. To wit:
- If Anthony finishes first or second in Rookie of the Year voting, his salary from 2031-2033 goes up by $1 million each year, and the option increases by $2 million.
- Each season in which he wins an MVP award means an extra $2 million per occurrence for 2031-2034 (or $1 million for 2nd or 3rd place; $750,000 for 4th or 5th place; $500,000 for 6th through 10th place).
- Each time he makes an All-Star team he adds $200,000 to his contract from 2031-2034.
So, if Anthony were to win the MVP award every season of the deal (including the option year), he could make himself an extra $80 million. And if he were playing that well, ostensibly he would make the All-Star team each of those seasons, which would add another $1.8 million.
But Anthony does not need to be Barry Bonds (seven MVPs) or even Shohei Ohtani (three) to have this deal be a financial boon for a player who, just three months ago, could not legally buy a drink. Regardless of what the future holds, Roman Anthony has set himself and his family up for life, and the Red Sox have locked in yet another piece of their future at a reasonable rate. This is the rare win-win.
