The curious case of Roman Anthony’s 2026 season is, in all likelihood, over.

Red Sox manager Chad Tracy announced prior to Game 2 of the Wild Card Series that Anthony had been sent back to Boston for further imaging on his injured hand the previous night, and that the results were not good.

“[The imaging] showed additional damage to some muscles in his wrist that weren’t there before,” Tracy said.

Tracy shared that the Red Sox had “paperwork in” to replace Anthony on the roster, which would by necessity keep him out for the Wild Card Series and the ALDS, if the Red Sox make it that far. Based on Tracy’s report on the injury, it did not sound like a return at any point in October would be realistic.

“He’s a really good player,” Tracy said of Anthony. “Certainly not something that we wanted to happen.”

A torn ligament at the base of Anthony’s ring finger — originally diagnosed as a minor wrist injury by the Red Sox — ended up costing Anthony nearly four months this season. He returned to the Red Sox at the end of August and played through the end of the season, but a check swing in Game No. 162 appeared to aggravate his injury, and two check-swing strikeouts in Game 1 against Cam Schlittler of the Yankees ended his playoff debut early.

The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier reported that Anthony’s “issue predated” Game 1, with Andruw Monasterio being told before the game that he may be needed to pinch-hit for Anthony at some point.

Tracy said that it’s “not necessarily” a recurrence of the same injury, and also that it’s too soon to know if surgery will be required.

Anthony was limited to just 55 games this year, hitting .245 (down from .292 last year) with a .735 OPS (down from .859 last season). Interestingly, due to the timing of his injury, Anthony missed out on most of the Red Sox’ winning this year.

The team was 14-21 when he suffered the injury in Detroit on May 4. When Anthony returned on Aug. 30, the team was 74-62, having gone 60-41 in his absence. The team went 13-13 after Anthony’s return.

Anthony also missed last year’s Wild Card Series after suffering an oblique strain in early September.

“He’s upset. Mentally going through it, he wants to be out there. He wants to be out there with the guys,” Tracy said, noting that Anthony was traveling back to New York to be with the team. “It’s grinding on him for sure. He’s upset. He wants to be out there with the guys. And obviously, everything he’s gone through this year, dealing with these different things, it’s tough for him. There’s no question from anyone on our side of things, we love the kid, love the player, fantastic player. He’s just dealt with hardships this year, and this is the next in line with that.”