And yet.
“Even though it’s not a veteran presence, he can still take command of the clubhouse,” Garrett Whitlock said. “There’s a respect to his name.”
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Whitlock, the longest-tenured active member of the Red Sox, offered that as part of his response to a question about whether Anthony seemed more comfortable as a big leaguer during spring training, relative to last summer.
Is Roman the leader something Whitlock sees glimpses of?
“I just think that he’s going to be his own type of leader. It’s good to see him starting to accept that and take that role,” Whitlock said. “And I’m going to let him know: Hey, man, I got your back. So however you want to lead and however you want to do it, you’re going to be here a long time. This is going to be your clubhouse. Start molding it … This is your place. This is going to be your city, your team. How can I best support you in that? Let me know what I can do to help you.”
Alex Cora, in an unsolicited aside about how much he enjoys merely conversing with Anthony, referenced an overall clubhouse social structure that is more youth-centric than usually is the case.
“I don’t know if you noticed, man. It started last year,” the manager explained. “These guys, they gravitate towards them, to the rookies. Even now, like yesterday, I was looking for Trevor, and Marcelo [Mayer’s] locker is that way [next to Anthony’s toward a corner of the room] — and everybody is that way. They enjoy it. I bet there’s a lot of cool stories. Same thing with Roman. I saw it in the [World Baseball Classic], people around him in a dugout — like, the dudes.”
Payton Tolle said: “Roman has every chance to act like ‘I’m Roman Anthony and this is my complex.’ And he’s very quiet, very humble. He doesn’t want to talk about himself.”
Regarding Whitlock saying he will support Anthony in however he wants to shape the clubhouse, Cora said: “Time will take care of that. I think he’s in the state of mind that he’s still a rookie and he has to respect the people around him, which is awesome. If they make him do the coffee run again, he’ll do it.”
▪ Fun and funny, but on the cutting-room floor after lots of Anthony-related interviews: His dad, Tony, a financial adviser by trade, was a little bit of an angel on the shoulder during Roman’s offseason luxury car shopping.
“It’s a fine line, because he’s a 21-year-old kid, but he’s also never had a summer to himself since he was probably 11 years old,” Tony said. “So when he got the contract, yes, you want to kind of reel him in, but at the same time, you just let him enjoy the fruits of his work as well.”
▪ And Hall of Famer Jim Rice, on the Green Monster and the duty of a Red Sox left fielder: “If you’re a Red Sox player, you have to anticipate you will get a double every time you hit the wall. But if you are a Red Sox player playing left field, no one should get a double. You should know every bounce off that wall.”
▪ How quiet was Red Sox camp? After the Caleb Durbin trade on Day 1, the biggest news story probably was Tolle shaving “USA” into his chest hair and giving a patriotic presentation to the team.
Young Red Sox lefty Connelly Early has an opportunity to put his stamp on his spot in the rotation with some strong starts out of the gate.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
▪ There is a lot to appreciate about Connelly Early making the roster, and the rotation, out of spring training.
We like to think of baseball as a pure meritocracy, but that is not always the case, given the weight of contracts, minor league options, etc. But Early deserved a spot and indeed has one (in part because the Sox want Johan Oviedo as a long reliever behind the not-quite-full-strength Ranger Suarez). He had a great camp, which came after a great major league cameo late last season, which came after a great year in the minors.
The Red Sox say they will reassess after a couple of turns through the rotation, when Suarez is fully built up. The most fun/interesting scenario would be for Early to do very well Sunday against the Reds, then again next weekend against the Padres at Fenway Park. They couldn’t send him to Triple-A Worcester in that case, right?
▪ What an odd sequence of Sox opponents to begin the year: Reds, Astros, Padres, Brewers, Cardinals. They don’t face an AL East team until the Yankees come to Fenway on April 21.
▪ My biggest question after watching Netflix’s presentation of Yankees-Giants on Wednesday: Who was that for? Did it make non-fans more likely to watch baseball? Or convince baseball fans to watch any of the many Netflix shows wedged into the production?
The game served as the debut of Netflix’s new baseball commitment, which includes a handful of marquee events, a partnership that might lead to a bigger deal with MLB down the line. So I at least can understand some kiss-up-ery, but they took it to an extreme degree.
Hopefully, as Netflix settles in as a sports broadcaster, it gets comfortable showing us baseball, as opposed to something that is painfully Baseball Being Watched On Netflix.
▪ Lastly, happy baseball season, all. We made it. This is a glorious time of year. Enjoy.
Tim Healey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @timbhealey.
