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Roman Anthony #19 of the Boston Red Sox rounds the bases after hitting a home run against the Baltimore Orioles during the first inning at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

A prominent sports medicine doctor on Friday accused the Boston Red Sox of lying to fans about the severity of Roman Anthony’s hand injury. The accusation follows Anthony’s admission that he is dealing with a partially torn ligament, a diagnosis that appeared to contradict earlier statements from team officials.

Now, with Anthony already sidelined for nearly a month and shut down again after experiencing discomfort while swinging and still without a return date, the growing dispute over exactly what the Red Sox knew — and when they knew it — has become a major storyline in Boston.

Dr. Jesse Morse, who breaks down athlete injuries for a large online audience, reacted to a May 5 report that labeled Anthony’s ailment a minor wrist sprain expected to keep him out only briefly. “LIES LIES LIES,” Morse wrote in a post on X, noting that the 22-year-old wound up on the injured list with a partially torn ligament.

In a follow-up X post, Morse claimed the club opted to inject the partial tear with platelet-rich plasma rather than pursue a more aggressive treatment. There has been no public reporting suggesting that Anthony received a PRP shot. He did, however, receive a cortisone shot more than two weeks ago.

A PRP shot would not be an unusual treatment for an injury such as Anthony’s, but there is no conformation that Anthony has received one.

Doctor Disputes Boston Red Sox Account of Roman Anthony Injury

What irked Morse is the way the Red Sox spent weeks downplaying the severity of Anthony’s injury. Team president Sam Kennedy went on WEEI radio and shot down reports of a ligament tear, insisting a second opinion confirmed the diagnosis as a sprain at the base of the ring finger, according to Sports Illustrated‘s Patrick McAvoy.

“There’s no evidence of a tear,” Kennedy said.

Anthony told a different story. The injury is “a partially torn ring finger ligament,” he said in a separate WEEI interview, pinpointing the joint as his ring finger CMC.

Interim manager Chad Tracy addressed the conflicting versions.

“It is a tear,” Tracy said, comparing the damage to a strained hamstring in which fibers partially give way, as quoted by MassLive‘s Chris Cotillo. Tracy stressed the setback was nobody’s fault and that the club could not force the healing, conceding the layoff would run longer than Boston first hoped. The mixed signals fit a pattern in Boston this season, with the team also slow to detail injuries to pitchers Garrett Crochet and Garrett Whitlock.

Anthony’s Path From Top Prospect to Injured Red Sox Star

Anthony is no longer a prospect, having exhausted his rookie eligibility in 2025. Before reaching the majors, though, he climbed to No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s overall rankings. Boston drafted him in the second round in 2022 out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and signed him for $2.5 million, above slot. The payoff arrived fast in the form of an eight-year, $130 million extension.

His rookie season backed up the hype. After debuting June 9, Anthony posted a 140 wRC+ and a .292/.396/.463 slash line in 2025, earning American League Rookie of the Month honors for August before an oblique strain ended his year in September. The 2026 numbers have been rougher, a 94 wRC+ and .675 OPS across 30 games, and now the finger has erased a full month.

The timing could hardly be worse. Boston sits 23-33 and last in the American League East, losers of six games in its last seven. A mid-June return had been the target for Anthony. That timetable has vanished, and the Red Sox have not floated a new one.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist who covers MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, boxing, golf, and Olympic sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Newspaper and Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering the Olympics, pro baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin