It\u2019s official. Roman Anthony will suit up for Team USA at next month\u2019s World Baseball Classic.<\/p>\n
The Red Sox outfielder was formally announced as the newest member of Team USA on Monday morning, confirming his participation in the prestigious international event. Anthony will replace Arizona\u2019s Corbin Carroll, who suffered a broken hamate bone that will keep him out of action for several weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something you dream of as a kid,\u201d Anthony told reporters in Fort Myers on Monday. \u201cTo be able to get that phone call, obviously it\u2019s super unfortunate what happened (to Carroll) and hoping for the best for him with a speedy recovery, but it was exciting on my end to be able to get that call.\u201d<\/p>\n
Word began circulating that Anthony was on Team USA\u2019s radar shortly after Carroll\u2019s injury, and Anthony said he got the official go-ahead from USA manager Mark DeRosa late Sunday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it\u2019s one of those calls that pops up and you kind of light up,\u201d Anthony said. \u201cLike I said, just an unbelievable opportunity to even be considered in something like that with the group of guys that are there, it\u2019s going to be a blessing for sure that I\u2019m looking forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony will join a star-studded USA roster featuring many of the best players in the world. Team USA\u2019s lineup includes Yankees star Aaron Judge, Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh and former Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman, among others. The pitching staff is led by reigning Cy Young winners Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes and also features Red Sox teammate Garrett Whitlock.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. Just getting to be around those guys and getting that opportunity to be around the game\u2019s best and to be around so many veteran guys that have done it for such a long time,\u201d Anthony said. \u201cIt will be a great learning experience for me but at the same time understanding that there\u2019s a goal that we have to try and come out on top and at the same time just got to be ready for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony said it will be especially nice to take the field with Bregman, who mentored the young outfielder in Boston last season before signing with the Chicago Cubs this offseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe reached out when it happened and we talked over the phone, he wanted to see where I was at and just kind of check in,\u201d Anthony said. \u201cObviously it will be a great opportunity to take the field with him again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony said he hasn\u2019t been given too many details about his role on Team USA other than that he\u2019ll primarily play left field. Anthony will report to Team USA in early March, at which point he\u2019ll begin preparing for the team\u2019s tournament opener against Brazil on March 6.<\/p>\n
Anthony becomes the 12th Red Sox big leaguer to commit to the WBC. In addition to Whitlock on Team USA, other Red Sox participants include left-hander Ranger Suarez, outfielder Wilyer Abreu and first baseman Willson Contreras (Venezuela), right-hander Brayan Bello (Dominican Republic), outfielder Jarren Duran (Mexico), outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela (Netherlands), designated hitter Masataka Yoshida (Japan), right-hander Greg Weissert (Italy), left-hander Jovani Moran (Puerto Rico) and utility man Nate Eaton (Great Britain).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s official. Roman Anthony will suit up for Team USA at next month\u2019s World Baseball Classic. The Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[3959,49,48,57775,462,1491,4015,82,58784,148306],"class_list":{"0":"post-478857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-boston-red-sox","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-mark-derosa","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-red-sox","14":"tag-roman-anthony","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-team-usa","17":"tag-world-baseball-classic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}