Benchmarks Roman Anthony must hit to be the Red Sox October savior

In The Return of the King, there’s this big title drop splash screen over a beautiful forest and mountain that always makes you think of how awesome it is that (spoiler alert … is it possible to spoil The Lord of the Rings in 2026?) Aragorn is going to retake the throne of men. That’s approximately how I feel about Roman Anthony.

Anthony is finally back after a painstaking absence that saw the Red Sox ebb and flow and then flow so hard they got themselves back into the playoffs. Things have been a little more ebb as of late, but Anthony is every bit the key to Boston’s playoff success — and the early signs are very, very good.

It’s not like Roman Anthony needs to do anything specific beyond, you know, hit in order to be Boston’s savior in October. But there are a few things that would be nice to see going into the postseason, given he’s missed such a long time. It really was like The Odyssey — none of us knew if we would ever see him again.

The first benchmark he needs to hit is the bench in whatever outfield he happens to be playing in. It’s the worst-kept secret in baseball that a Roman Anthony who hits home runs would be an unstoppable force of nature given his one-of-one combination of exit velocity and plate discipline, and as I was writing this he hit a crucial solo shot against the Baltimore Orioles that sealed the one-run victory on Thursday night. Anthony just needs to avoid too many ground balls to turn the Red Sox from a contender to the potential American League favorite.

Second, Anthony will need to keep doing what he already does naturally: Produce the kind of quality at-bat that the Red Sox have lacked all year. Boston’s most important players, like Willson Contreras and Ceddanne Rafaela, tend to also strikeout a lot and make … let’s say questionable swing decisions. Anthony is a totally different kind of hitter; he walks a ton and puts miles on pitchers in a way that the rest of the order can’t. He’s an incredible leadoff hitter and a tough out for anyone who takes the pressure off those hitting behind him. So keep doing that.

When I was planning out this piece, I expected to come up with a bunch of statistical qualifiers like I usually do, but that wasn’t really working. The reality of postseason baseball is that you kinda just have to … hit. Your expected batting average doesn’t matter when you need a hit; your xwOBA doesn’t work when you need some actual bases. What the Red Sox really need out of Anthony is contagious fury.

Roman needs to bring the injection of swag this team has lacked since its crazy winning streak earlier in the summer. Building a run out of magic dust and utility infielders is one thing, but playing with the confidence of a team that can actually win the World Series is another. Anthony has the kind of hitting superpowers that make this team dangerous, and with how much confidence matters for hitting, having that backbone is essential.