Roman Anthony’s wrist reveals ‘new’ strains as Red Sox scramble for a roster replacement

NEW YORK — A day after removing Roman Anthony from their first playoff game under somewhat mysterious circumstances, the Red Sox revealed that Anthony is dealing with a right hand/wrist injury serious enough to warrant him being removed from their Wild Card Series roster.

Major League Baseball approved a substitution on Boston’s roster with Curtis Mead, in somewhat surprising fashion, coming off the injured list to take Anthony’s place. Mead is active but not starting Game 2 on Wednesday. Anthony is ineligible to play in the ALDS if the Red Sox advance, though manager Chad Tracy cast doubt on his availability pregame.

• MORE: Red Sox’ Roman Anthony after being removed from roster: ‘I feel sick to my stomach’

“I know there’s enough there, and enough new stuff there, where (Anthony) is not gonna be able to play,” Tracy said Wednesday afternoon. “There’s enough there that we know that if we make this move, we’re not only going to miss him now, but also for this next series. We’re pretty confident in that to be able to submit paperwork.”

Anthony was removed from Tuesday’s Game 1 loss after two at-bats and was driven back to Boston before the end of the night. On Wednesday, he had imaging that revealed “new” strains to muscles in his wrist plus a re-aggravation of the injury that caused him to miss nearly four months of the regular season, Tracy said. The injury is serious enough for Anthony to be ruled out for the immediate future but the Red Sox don’t have a timetable yet. Speaking to reporters shortly before the game, Anthony said: “I feel sick to my stomach.”

“(He’s) sore,” Tracy said. “He was sent back last night after leaving the game. We sent him back to Boston for extra, additional imaging which actually revealed some new strains to different muscles in his wrist in addition to exasperating the old injuries. It’s not great.”

Anthony’s latest setback seems both related and unrelated to an injury in a similar area that cost him for months of the regular season. Anthony first injured his hand on a swing in Detroit on May 4, suffering what was later described as a “partially torn ring finger ligament in (the) ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal) joint.” After an arduous rehab process that included many setbacks, he returned to Boston’s lineup on Aug. 30 and played in 25 games down the stretch. According to Tracy, Anthony experienced “zingers” in his hand throughout the process but nothing that rose to the level of the discomfort he experienced in Tuesday’s game.

“He has had check-swings throughout this process, since coming back off of it, that irritated (the area),” Tracy said. “It’s happened numerous times. Those happen where typically, by the next day, it was feeling fine. That’s happened since September started and he was coming back from all this stuff and doing it. There’s swings that do that to it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we were overly concerned about it.”

Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow added: “As far as I know, the rehab and the return to play was the appropriate one. Last night in the game, he did something where things changed, things worsened and we needed to take a fresh look at it.”

• MORE: Red Sox make surprise roster move to replace Roman Anthony, bring trade deadline addition off IL after two months

Over the weekend, Anthony experienced some soreness on check-swings that were concerning enough for the Red Sox to inform Andruw Monasterio that he should be ready to sub in for Anthony should Anthony feel more pain Tuesday night. That happened after two check-swings against Yankees ace Cam Schlittler early in the game despite Anthony expressing confidence in the lead-up to first pitch.

“Actually, once he went and hit before the game, it was basically like, ‘Let’s rock and roll,’” Tracy said. “When the game started, I wasn’t even thinking about it. You always keep people prepared, but I wasn’t even thinking about it. Then he took two at-bats (with check swings). I still wasn’t thinking about it until (head athletic trainer Brandon Henry) tapped me and said something worse happened.”

Anthony is on his way back to Yankee Stadium where the Red Sox will try to extend their season with a Game 2 win. At this point, Tracy would not rule out a return much later in the postseason if the Red Sox come back to beat the Yankees in the next two games and make a run deep into October. He’s unsure of the next course of action regarding Anthony’s wrist.

“I hope it’s not today, and I hope it’s a month from now, but we’re gonna hit an offseason where there’s going to be a long layoff and everybody’s body, after a 162-game season, needs time to heal and recover,” Tracy said. “My hope is that it would be a situation where he can finally get to a place where it can just rest and it’s fine. I don’t really know the answer to that.”

Assuming Anthony does not return this postseason, his first full year in the major leagues will end after 55 regular season games and two postseason plate appearances. He hit .245 with five homers, 15 RBIs and a .735 OPS in the regular season before going 0-for-2 in Game 1. A year after Anthony’s rookie season ended prematurely due to an oblique strain he suffered on a swing in early September, he once again is not expected to finish the season healthy.

“It’s grinding on him, for sure,” Tracy said. “He’s upset. He wants to be out there with the guys. Obviously, everything he’s gone through this year, dealing with these different things, it’s tough for him.

“There’s no question from anybody 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 of that. But he wants to be out there with the guys, and he would if he could.”

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