Radio Host Has Wild Proposal For Red Sox's Handling Of No. 1 Prospect Roman Anthony

Feb 18, 2025; Lee County, FL, USA; Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony (48) participates in media day at JetBlue Park at Fenway South. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

A certain Boston sports talk host is no stranger to making controversial statements about Boston Red Sox top prospect Roman Anthony, and on Tuesday, he's at it again.

Tony Massarotti of 98.5 The Sports Hub went viral during spring training when he worried over the state of Anthony's defense based on a nitpicked line from an unspecified scouting report. Massarotti seemingly claimed Anthony was destined to become a designated hitter because his defense "sucks."

On Tuesday, Massarotti is singing a different tune about Anthony, the consensus number-one position player prospect in all of baseball. But this time, his ire seems to be directed at Triston Casas, the Red Sox's starting first baseman.

"If I’m the Red Sox, I start playing Roman Anthony at first base in Worcester," Massarotti posted to his 157,600 followers on X on Tuesday morning.

Massarotti has the replies turned off on all of his tweets at the moment, but in the first three hours, the post had over 50 quote tweets, the vast majority of which expressed either outrage or humorous disregard.

Casas, 25, has struggled out of the gates in 2025, posting a .179/.238/.308 slash line thus far over 42 plate appearances. He still owns an .816 OPS/121 OPS+ in his brief career so far, but the slow start has become something of a trend after he struggled for the first two months in 2023.

Anthony has never played first base at the professional level, nor is there any indication that the Red Sox plan on having him do so. He's typically regarded as at least an average defender in the outfield, where he sees time both in center field and the corners, where most predict he'll eventually settle in.

There's no question that the Red Sox will have some tricky decisions to make whenever they decide to call Anthony up to the majors. And that could happen soon, because even with a 4-for-24 start to the season, Anthony has two home runs, eight walks, and an .875 OPS in Triple-A so far.

But Casas is still expected to be a middle-of-the-order bat for the Red Sox for many years to come, and suddenly giving up on him after 11 bad games would be malpractice. Plus, Anthony will be much more valuable as an outfielder than a first baseman in the future.