Its finally time. The Red Sox announced that the top prospect in baseball has been selected to the roster. Fellow outfielder has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a left oblique strain. First baseman/outfielder has been designated for a signment to open a 40-man spot. Anthony, now 21, has been at or near the top of prospect lists for a while now. The Sox grabbed him with the 79th overall pick in 2022, a compensation pick they received after rejected a qualifying offer and signed with the Tigers. After a brief profe sional debut in that 2022 season, he took off in 2023. He climbed from Single-A to High-A to Double-A, putting up a combined .272/.403/.466 line and 140 wRC+. That made him a consensus top 25 prospect in the sport coming into 2024. He raised his stock even higher last year, slashing .291/.396/.498 for a 147 wRC+ between Double-A and Triple-A. In addition to that work at the plate, Anthony tallied double-digit stolen base totals in both 2023 and 2024. He is also considered a strong outfield defender. By the end of 2024, he was already the #1 prospect in the league for some outlets. Some publications bumped him to #2 once was signed by the Dodgers, though others kept Anthony in the top spot. Between Anthony, , , and , the Sox had four tremendous prospects generating excitement this past offseason. The four were often mentioned in trade rumors and Teel was eventually flipped to the White Sox as part of the deal, though the other three remained and still provided a lot of optimism about the future. Coming into 2025, with that hype and already having 35 big league games under his belt, a quick promotion for Anthony seemed po sible. However, his time in Triple-A has dragged on, despite murmuring from all corners of the baseball world. Initially, some of that was justified. He was dealing with some shoulder sorene s in April and spent some time where he was only serving as the designated hitter and not playing the field. But that quickly pa sed and he kept putting up huge numbers at the plate. The question then became one of playing time in Boston. The Sox have spent most of this year with a crowded outfield mix consisting of Abreu, and , with and Campbell also factoring in. That didnt leave a clean path for Anthony to get playing time, especially with taking up the designated hitter spot on an everyday basis. Still, many were calling for the Sox to simply call him up and figure it out. Those calls grew louder when the Sox lost both of their corner infielders. First, suffered a season-ending knee injury. That led to much speculation about Devers getting plugged in at first in order to open at-bats for Anthony, or perhaps Luis Gonzalez Jersey Anthony taking first base himself. Understandably, the Sox didnt want to me s with Anthonys development as an outfielder, so they never gave much consideration to that. Devers was unwilling to try his hand at first base. Then third baseman went on the IL with a quad injury that could keep him out for a couple of months, but the Sox never seemed to really consider the po sibility of asking Devers about going back there. As all that was going on, Anthony continued to put up ma sive numbers for Worcester. As of today, he has a .288/.423/.491 line and 146 wRC+. He has ten home runs and three steals in 58 games. His 19.2% walk rate is almost as high as his 21.1% strikeout rate. Now, finally, it seems like this Abreu injury will open the door for him to get to the big leagues. As the season drags along, the playing time puzzle might return. That will depend on Abreus injury and how long it will take him to get back. At some point, maybe will finally get healthy and re-enter the equation. Its po sible things will work out organically. Other injuries may arise before those guys heal up. Anthony might struggle, as even the best prospects can sometimes need a bit of time to get their feet wet in the big leagues. Campbell also followed a hot April with a rough May. If he doesnt get back on track, perhaps he could get optioned to the minors with Rafaela moving to the infield. But on the other hand, Rafaela is the best defensive center fielder of the bunch. Duran and Anthony can play up the middle but each is considered a better fit for a corner. Theres also the shortstop question, as has been heating up of late but is having a bad season overall. Mayer is up to cover for Bregman at third but hasnt quite fully clicked in the big leagues yet. There will also be long-term things to be sorted out. The crowded outfield situation has led to trade rumors surrounding Duran. Bregman could opt out after this season and its unclear if the Sox would be willing to return Devers to that spot. Casas is expected back by next years spring training but he has also been in trade rumors. Devers isnt willing to play there now but perhaps he would be more amenable with an offseason to prepare. Campbell has dabbled with some first base drills but hasnt officially played there yet. In time, there should be more clarity on the clubs long-term plans. For now, Sox fans can get excited about Anthonys emergence and hope that it helps turn around a middling season. The Sox are currently 32-35, fourth in the American League East and four games back of a Wild Card spot. Even if they cant engineer a comeback this year, players like Anthony, Mayer, Campbell, Rafael, Duran, Abreu and others can be affordably controlled for years to come, giving the club an exciting core to build around. As a consensus top prospect, Anthony is eligible for the prospect promotion incentive. Since the Sox didnt promote him early enough to get a full service year the traditional way, they wont be able to earn an extra draft pick based on awards voting this year. Anthony can technically earn himself a full year of service time by finishing in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting, though that will be tough to do. Players like , and even Anthonys teammate have a big headstart on him. Even if he performs well, it would be hard to catch up to those guys with more than a third of the season already in the books. If Anthony manages to pull that off, he would hasten his path to free agency by a year. Otherwise, he would be on pace to hit the open market after 2031 at the earliest, though future optional a signments could also impact that timeline. Noda, 29, was just acquired from the Angels a few weeks ago in a cash deal. Hes a three true outcomes guy, with lots of homers and walks but also strikeouts. In 606 big league plate appearances, he has a 34.2% strikeout rate, 15% walk rate and 17 homers. That adds up to a .212/.344/.369 line and 107 wRC+. Dating back to the start of 2022, he has 574 minor league plate appearances with 25 home runs, a 16% walk rate and 28.2% strikeout rate. That leads to a .259/.395/.474 line and 125 wRC+. The Sox grabbed him for extra first base depth with the Casas injury but now risk losing him. DFA limbo can last as long as a week but the waiver proce s takes 48 hours, so Boston could take five days to explore trade interest. He is still optionable for the rest of this year and one additional season. If he were to pa s through waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the Sox as non-roster depth. first reported that Anthony was being promoted. A few minutes earlier, reported that a promotion was po sible. first noted that Abreu was going on the IL, though had previously suggested that an IL stint for Abreu was likely. Photos courtesy of Ashley Green, Imagn Images Logan Allen Jersey