Red Sox fans have every reason to be uneasy about Roman Anthony’s hand going into 2027.
The concern isn’t about his talent. It’s about whether Boston can count on his body. Anthony has already gone through a strange, drawn-out injury ordeal in 2026, and the biggest red flag is simple: even after months away from baseball, the problem never fully went away.
Anthony’s injury was ultimately identified as a partially torn carpometacarpal ligament, a rare issue in the area connecting his right ring finger to his wrist. At the start, it was believed to be only a wrist sprain. Later, one hand doctor made the correct diagnosis and said he had never seen a torn CMC ligament in decades of practice.
That diagnosis only deepened the uncertainty. There was no surgical fix available, and there still isn’t as the offseason begins. The timeline for his return kept shifting during the 2026 season, and that steady stream of delays fueled unfair talk about Anthony being “soft.”
What makes this situation even harder to shake is that Anthony still was not fully right after 4.5 months of rest. He missed 101 games while rehabbing, and later said the hand never felt 100% when he came back. That’s the part Boston can’t ignore.
The problem also got worse at the end of the year. When Anthony had to pull out of the AL Wild Card Series, imaging revealed damage to muscles in the wrist that were different from the original finger injury.
As Chad Tracy explained, “Boston outfielder Roman Anthony has damage to muscles in his wrist that is different than the finger injury he previously suffered, Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said. Boston is looking to replace him on the roster, and Jahmai Jones will take Anthony's spot atop the lineup tonight.”
The most pressing question now is whether an offseason can do what months of rest already didn’t. Sean McAdam of MassLive asked the right thing this week: why assume the injury will fully heal over the winter when it did not do so after that long stretch of inactivity in 2026?
That’s the reality Boston is dealing with. There aren’t many, if any, comparable medical cases to offer a clean answer. No one can say with certainty how long the recovery will really take or how vulnerable Anthony will be to another flare-up once he’s supposed to be healthy.
So while the hope is that Anthony can finally put together his first full season with the Red Sox in 2027, skepticism is part of the conversation too. And given what happened in 2026, it’s justified.
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