Top Red Sox Prospect Admits It’s Nice To Be ‘Rewarded’ For Fast Rise

BOSTON -- The Red Sox placed high expectations on their top three prospects, and the hype on Roman Anthony could grow exponentially with a strong spring training.

The 19-year-old is Boston's top prospect at Sox Prospects, and he's coming off an impressive season where he rose from Low-A Salem to High-A Greenville to Double-A Portland. Anthony's time with the Sea Dogs was short, but he hit one home run and brought in eight RBIs off a 1.020 OPS in 10 games.

However, his rising star power in Boston's farm system hasn't deterred his overall goal for his Major League Baseball career.

"It's always great to be rewarded. It's great to see that all the hard work is slowly turning up," Anthony said at the Red Sox development program. "For me, I don't really pay attention to it just because the end goal is to get here and help this team win and win a World Series in Boston. For me, it's nice to be rewarded and for people to recognize the work you put in every day, but everything remains the same. The process remains the same. The end goal still is to get here as fast as I can. But all that’s nice for now."

Anthony will start this upcoming Double-A Portland season with fellow top prospects Marcelo Mayer and Kyle Teel. His stock could continue to rise with a possible promotion to Triple-A Worcester not outside the realm of possibility this season. But the outfielder's goals haven't wavered with high expectations.

"I think it remains the same," Anthony said on what his goal is this season. "Just like last year going into spring training, didn't really know what to expect. Just trying to learn as much as I could from all the guys around me with more experience than myself and kept that same mentality at each level. Just tried to lean on guys with more experience than myself, that have been in the same situation that I was in for the first time. So I think it remains the same regardless of the level, just trying to learn as much as I can and get better each day."

Triston Casas was at Red Sox development camp and imparted simple advice to the players there. The Boston first baseman also expressed optimism for Anthony's career, and Red Sox fans could join in on that optimism once they get a look at what he does at Fort Myers, Fla.