CHICAGO — Two-time National League MVP Bryce Harper gave Roman Anthony a pat on the back and asked how he was doing.
Anthony had just drawn a six-pitch walk during a Grapefruit League game against the Phillies in Clearwater, Fla., on Feb. 28.
Baseball America’s No. 1 prospect jogged to first base where the former Baseball America No. 1 prospect introduced himself during a pause in the game while the Phillies changed pitchers a couple batters later.
“He just congratulated me, told me he was excited for me and excited to kind of see how everything pans out,” Anthony said before Boston’s loss against the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Saturday. “I think for me, that was one of the first guys I was like, ‘Oh, wow! That’s Bryce Harper.’ So it was cool.”
Anthony and the Red Sox will play a three-game series in Philadelphia against Harper and the Phillies on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Anthony has drawn comparisons to Harper, who held the title of Baseball America’s No. 1 prospect entering both 2011 and ‘12.
Anthony and Harper are built similarly. They both have sweet left-handed swings, post high walk rates, generate eye-popping exit velocities and hit long home runs. Harper hit a home run measured at 570 feet by his coaches, per ESPN, as a freshman in high school. His longest MLB home run tracked by Statcast has traveled 473 feet.
Anthony blasted a 497-foot, 115.6 mph grand slam for Triple-A Worcester on June 7, two days before Boston promoted him.
“You hear a lot of comparisons and I think those can be dangerous …. when people kind of put expectations on you or compare you to a guy or expect you to live up to a multiple-time MVP guy like that,” the 21-year-old Anthony said. “Obviously those are the goals I set for myself. And yeah, I believe that I’m capable of doing things that are great things in this league.”
Anthony is well aware comparisons get “thrown around quite a bit” but he’s never focused on player comps and outside expectations.
“I just try to get the max potential out of myself every single day. And whatever happens, happens,” Anthony said.
Anthony was two weeks away from his 8th birthday when Harper, then 19, made his highly-anticipated MLB debut for the Washington Nationals on April 28, 2012, against the Los Angeles Dodgers in front of 54,242 fans at Dodger Stadium.
Sports Illustrated put Harper on its magazine cover when he was just 16 years old, proclaiming him “Baseball’s chosen one” and the “most exciting prodigy since LeBron.”
Anthony’s MLB debut didn’t receive quite the same hype as Harper’s — but it was still up there.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal wrote the morning after Anthony’s 497-foot homer that he shouldn’t spend one more day in the minors. Later that day, Red Sox manager Alex Cora got peppered with questions about when Anthony might be called up.
Reporters and fans also closely monitored Worcester’s lineup daily for weeks to see if Anthony was playing. On June 6, he wasn’t in the lineup for the first time in 33 games, causing a stir on social media before the WooSox sent out a statement confirming it was only a day off for him and he wasn’t being promoted.
Anthony said he didn’t get caught up in all the hype and excitement.
“I don’t have Twitter,” he said. “I stay off all that. I don’t really like to look at social media a bunch for that reason. I think there’s just a lot of outside noise and a lot of unnecessary things that you see as a player outside of what you need to see inside the clubhouse and what you need to do.”
Anthony has Instagram. But he has only nine posts — seven of them relating to baseball. He said “everyone’s different.”
“But for me, I learned at a young age in my early career that I don’t need all those platforms,” he said. “I don’t need to do all that. I need to just show up every day and do what I can do and control what I can control, every day.”
Anthony said that he likes to “just unplug and disconnect” when he leaves the ballpark for the day.
“I know you get to a point, though, where it’s hard to kind of avoid that,” he acknowledged.
Anthony is looking forward to watching (and meeting) other top players throughout the league as well.
“I was a huge (Christian) Yelich fan growing up so definitely him,” Anthony said.
Anthony will have to wait until next year when the Brewers visit Fenway Park. The Red Sox and Brewers met in Milwaukee on May 26-28 when Anthony was still in Triple A. It was their only meeting this season.
“I think every team we go to, you can pick out a guy who’s been around for a while, has a lot of knowledge,“ Anthony said. ”That’s cool to just kind of pick their brains and introduce yourself. So I’ve gotten to do that with a few guys already. So I think you always, just as a player, look forward to making those relationships with other guys and learning from other people.”
Anthony is consistently batting in the middle of Boston’s batting order. He has hit .353 with a .429 on-base percentage, .515 slugging percentage and .943 OPS in his last 18 games (77 plate appearances).
He also already has five defensive runs saved in 146 ⅓ innings in right field. It’s important to Anthony that he contributes both offensively and defensively. He gives a lot of credit to Red Sox outfield coordinator Kyle Hudson, pointing out he didn’t play much right field in the minors. Hudson has helped prepare him to do it.
Only 29 of Anthony’s 204 minor league starts in the outfield came in right.
“I played a lot of left and a lot of center,” he said. “Obviously things just kind of happen the way they do. And when I got called up, it was to play right (with Wilyer Abreu on the IL). So it can change fast. And for me, it was just, ‘All right. Now let’s do everything we can to maximize everything I can in right field and be ready.’”
Anthony takes reps at all three outfield positions during batting practice before games.
“It’s just a matter of showing up and staying consistent with Huddy and staying consistent with our guys here and doing everything I can,” Anthony said.
A Rookie of the Year win (or top three finish) is not out of the question for Anthony if he has a big second half that results in a playoff berth for Boston. Gary Sanchez finished second for 2016 AL Rookie of the Year after the Yankees called him up that Aug. 3. He compiled a 3.0 bWAR in just 53 games. Anthony has a 1.2 bWAR in just 33 games.
He already has the fourth best AL Rookie of the Year odds (+2000) behind Athletics’ Jacob Wilson (+120), Astros’ Cam Smith (+180) and Athletics’ Nick Kurtz (+350), per DraftKings.
“It’s not something that I wake up in the morning and I say, ‘Hey, I have to win it,’” he said. “I don’t set any expectations on myself.
“I try to come here and learn every day,” he added. “And I think if I just continue to do everything I can to help myself succeed and help this team win, stuff like that comes with it. So obviously something like that would be exciting and awesome. But at the same time, I think as a player, if you’re constantly waking up saying, ‘I’ve gotta do this’ or ‘I’ve gotta do that’ or ‘I’ve gotta hit a home run today’ or ‘I’ve gotta get a hit’ — things like that don’t just happen.”
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