Top Red Sox Prospect Reacts To Praise From Craig Breslow

BOSTON -- The future is bright for the Boston Red Sox, and the optimism is led by a "Big Three" of top prospects: Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Kyle Teel.

The trio will start this season at Double-A Portland. Anthony emerged as one of Boston's top prospects thanks to his ascension from High-A to Double-A in the second half of last season.

Boston hasn't had much success finding starting pitching for the major league club, and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow admitted tough decisions would need to be made. However, one of those does not include giving up Anthony, Mayer or Teel. It's lofty expectations, but it's one the 19-year-old outfielder embraces.

"It’s great. It's an honor to be counted on, and it's an honor to be mentioned," Anthony said at the Red Sox development program. "You always got to take that as a positive, obviously. But we're not there yet. None of us have gotten there yet. We got a lot of work to do. We got a long ways to go before we're there. I think I can speak for all the guys here when I say the end goal is the same. It's to hold up that banner and win a World Series here in Boston. I think we're all just working as hard as we can to get there and enjoy everything else along the way."

Anthony will be one of many top prospects looking to impress at Fort Myers. Fla., and he's enjoying all the opportunities at spring training and the Red Sox development program.

"Yeah, I think it gets better every time. Being here, being in this locker room, being around some of the big-league coaches, coordinators, it just makes it that much more real. It makes it feel like much more closer, and it's amazing. It's a blast. It's awesome to learn as much as I can from all these guys and retain as much info from guys who have so much experience."

Players are scheduled to report for spring training on Feb. 19.