Ranking the MLB readiness of the Red Sox top 5 prospects

None of the top five prospects are major league ready; looks like Boston will not be getting any younger in 2024.

Marcelo Mayer, the top prospect in the Red Sox organization, appears in a spring training game last season against the New York Yankees. Mayer is still a long way from becoming an every day major leaguer.
Marcelo Mayer, the top prospect in the Red Sox organization, appears in a spring training game last season against the New York Yankees. Mayer is still a long way from becoming an every day major leaguer. | Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/GettyImages
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Roman Anthony, outfield

CBS Sports has Anthony at number 17 in their latest top 25 list of all major league prospects. CBS Sports also ranks Anthony as the top prospect in the Red Sox organization, despite the fact that he has not made it past Double-A Portland. I have him ranked third in the organization, behind Rafaela and Mayer.

Anthony is a competitor and is a left-handed batter, which is a commodity today in baseball. He hit nine of his 14 home runs to either left or left-center fields and shows an impressive display of opposite field power. This was done at the tender age of 19 and, while he does show signs of absurd promise, he still has too much to prove to be the organization's No. 1 prospect.

"“At the beginning of the year, I was pulling it on the ground a little more than I would like to,” acknowledged Anthony, who was 200-plus plate appearances into the season when he went yard for a second time. “But I worked with my hitting coaches and eventually it clicked. It was really just minor tweaks. It’s not as though I was redoing my swing, or anything like that. I still have pretty much the same swing I’ve always had.”"
Roman Anthony, Red Sox OF prospect

Anthony does not strike out much for a player with so much power at the plate. He keeps his strikeout rate under 20 percent in the minor leagues, and seemed to get better with making contact as he grew in the system.