David Ortiz knows better than anyone what it’s like to star for the Red Sox, having won three World Series championships and making 10 All-Star teams in his 14 years with the club. Nearly a decade after he last played, the Hall of Famer has been more than impressed with Boston’s newest star.
In Roman Anthony, Ortiz said Friday from his charity golf tournament in South Florida, the Red Sox have a ready-made star. Ortiz is ready to anoint Anthony — who finished third in the American League Rookie of the Year race and has already signed an eight-year, $130 million contract — as a “face of the franchise.”
“When you have a guy that talented, that young and that mature, that’s the full package,” Ortiz said. “You know you have a face of the franchise. A guy like him, you know your money is worth it. That’s why we gave him that big deal out of the gate, right away, because he’s worth that much.”
Anthony, who entered 2025 as baseball’s consensus top prospect, debuted on June 9 and sparked the Red Sox in the middle of the season, hitting .292 with eight homers, 18 doubles, 32 RBIs and an .859 OPS in 71 games (303 plate appearances) before suffering a season-ending oblique strain on September 2. Anthony, who turned 21 less than a month before his major league debut, emerged as a star and clubhouse leader instantly and helped propel the Red Sox to their first postseason berth since 2021.
Anthony is scheduled to be in West Palm Beach this weekend for the 17th annual “Weekend with Papi” Celebrity Golf Classic at PGA National. Anthony will join current teammates as well as former Red Sox and other athletes to help Ortiz’s efforts in “raising funds for this international cause which provides lifesaving heart surgeries and care for children in Ortiz’s native Dominican Republic and throughout New England.” The goal is to raise $1.9 million at the event.
Ortiz has met Anthony already and is looking forward to re-connecting this weekend.
“I got to meet him, with his parents this year,” Ortiz said. “What a beautiful family. He has a brother he just looks like. His mom and dad are a proud mom and dad right now. I would be too. His mentality and his focus, it’s not from a 21-year-old guy. Trust me.”
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