When will Roman Anthony, Jac Caglianone make MLB debuts? - ESPN

THE CALLS GET louder by the day. In Boston, where the Red Sox have stumbled to a 27-31 start, the caterwauling for the promotion of the best prospect in baseball, outfielder Roman Anthony, is pointed and shrill. In Kansas City, where Royals outfielders have combined for seven home runs in more than 600 plate appearances, the pleas for the arrival of the best power hitter in the minor leagues, Jac Caglianone, are about to enter their third month.

So, why isn't Anthony patrolling the outfield at Fenway Park? And why isn't Caglianone in the middle of a Royals lineup starving for offense? And if not now, when will they arrive?

While the answers are likely to be dissatisfactory to those awaiting push notifications announcing the game's most eagerly anticipated promotions, the reasons reflect how executives approach the great unknowns inherent in baseball — and the rarity with which a rookie instantaneously changes the fortunes of a franchise.

The Red Sox are seeing the vagaries of trusting a rookie in real time. Along with Anthony, shortstop Marcelo Mayer and infielder/outfielder Kristian Campbell formed the greatest position-playing prospect trio in a decade coming into the 2025 season. Campbell broke camp with Boston and after the season's first month looked the part of a star. Since then, he has gone 9-for-79 and posted the worst OPS of any hitter in major league baseball.

«It's really difficult to predict that someone is going to be successful out of the gate,» Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told ESPN this week. «You're making these long-term, probabilistic bets that guys who perform the way Kristian and Marcelo and Roman have tend to be productive big leaguers. But does that happen in Week 1, Month 1,