Are the Red Sox Manipulating Roman Anthony's Service Time?

NOTE: This piece was written before Roman Anthony was called up to the majors, however the reason he was called up was due to an injury to Wilyer Abreu. It’s questionable if they would have called him up otherwise.

First, the rules. A player must be on a major league roster for 172 days in a typical 187 day season to accumulate a year of service time. This is important because it starts the clock on the first 3 years of team control and 3 years of arbitration. If a player is on the roster for 171 days (only 15 days into the season), the team essentially gains a 7th year of control.

After several cases of service time manipulation, the 2021 collective bargaining agreement added a provision that the top 2 finishers in the Rookie of the Year voting are automatically awarded a year of service time. So, you can see that not only is it advantageous for a team to bring up a player with less than 172 days remaining in the season, it is also advantageous that they bring him up late enough in the season as to not contend for the Rookie of the Year award.

One of the most prominent examples of this was in Chicago in 2015 when the Cubs (with Theo Epstein at the helm) delayed brining up Kris Bryant who ended up being on the major league roster for exactly 171 days and eventually did win the Rookie of the Year award. It was significant because he was "beat out" of the third base job in spring training by Mike Olt who had hit .191 the previous year. After playing 6 games in 2015, the Cubs shipped Olt to the White Sox. Kris Bryant and the MLBPA filed a grievance against the Cubs, but an arbitrator ruled that they could not prove the Cubs manipulated his service time.

There is no longer any chance that Roman Anthony could be on the major league roster for 172 days in 2025, so why aren't the Red Sox bringing him up? Craig Breslow claims that they want to improve his "pitch recognition of breaking balls in the zone." Does anybody really believe that? He is destroying AAA pitching and recently hit a 497-foot home run. He is slashing .290/.421/.495/.917.

Is there a chance that if Anthony came up today, he would contend for the Rookie of the Year award with 3 1/2 months left in the season? He would have to go on a tear unlike any rookie we've ever seen. Given this, I think that we will see Roman Anthony on the major league roster very soon. This will be a good thing for his development as well as the development of the Big 3.

Now you may ask "If they had brought Anthony up sooner would the Red Sox have won more games and be contending for a playoff spot?" Unlikely, but there is the outside chance that Roman Anthony has a rookie season on par with the greatest who've ever done it. Think Ichiro, Fred Lynn, Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, or Albert Pujols to name a few. It's not out of the realm of possibility.

So, what is my answer to the question "Are the Red Sox Manipulating Roman Anthony's Service Time?" My answer is yes, absolutely. It has been shown to be a tool in Theo Epstein's toolbox. Yes, they have a crowded outfield but that should not be a reason to block a player of Anthony's caliber. He is tearing the cover off the ball and has outperformed both Mayer and Campbell in AAA, who are both on the big club. There are reports that the Red Sox have approached Anthony with a long-term contract offer that he has turned down. If true, he is betting on himself to get a more lucrative contract once he’s broken into the majors.

Don't get me wrong, at this point the Red Sox have many problems that Roman Anthony can’t solve, but if you want to build a championship caliber team, this guy needs to be on the roster and learning to play in the big leagues NOW.