Apr 27, 2025; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) celebrates his solo home run during the sixth inning with teammates against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
One thing that is certain is that there is a lot more excitement around the Boston Red Sox right now than at any time over the last few years.
This isn’t too shocking. Over the last three years, Boston has had 2 last-place finishes in the American League East with identical 78-84 records. Last year, the Red Sox did take a step in the right direction, but even then, they finished the season with an 81-81 record.
There’s obviously more work to be done, but Boston has a 16-14 record and is trending in the right direction. The club also is just scratching the surface. Although the last few years haven’t gone as planned, Boston did a great job building up its farm system over that time. The Red Sox are starting to feel the impact of this, especially with Kristian Campbell with the team. He’s had a historic start to his Boston career, and there are two prospects in the minors right now who could be better.
Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer are with the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox with no signs of a promotion imminent. We’ll see what happens, but both of these young guys are absolutely tearing the cover off the ball right now. One thing that has stood out on social media over the last few days is the fact that Anthony actually has some offensive metrics that compare favorably to New York Yankees star Aaron Judge, as shared by Newsweek's Jon Vankin.
"According to Statcast numbers reported by Fangraphs, Anthony's hard hit percentage — that is, balls that leave his bat traveling at least 95 mph — stands at 61.7 percent as of Monday," Vankin said. "Judge has a rate of 58.8 percent. The MLB average is 40.3 percent. Anthony is also on par with Judge in barreled balls, which are defined as balls that come off the bat traveling at least 98 mph at a launch angle from 26 to 30 degrees.
"According to Statcast, a ball hit with those characteristics produces a batting average of .500 and a slugging percentage of 1.500. Anthony has been hitting balls this season with an average exit velocity of 97.1 mph, and his maximum so far this season has been 113.1 mph. Judge's hardest-hit ball came off his bat at 116.8 mph, but his average is a shade lower than Anthony's at 95.8 mph. Judge has 20 barreled balls so far in 2025. Anthony has barreled 19."
Anthony isn't in the majors right now, but anytime you compare favorably to Judge, it's a good day. Things are a little bit more difficult for Judge as he is taking the field each day with the Yankees at the big league level, but it is still nice for Anthony and makes him look good. It certainly doesn't hurt by any means.
