Not that it was any sort of shocker, but it was still exciting to see the Boston Red Sox make a genuine declaration about their starting lineup on Saturday.
Manager Alex Cora had already declared earlier in the offseason that he envisioned new first baseman Willson Contreras batting cleanup. On Saturday, Cora seemingly penciled another player into his everyday spot in the batting order: budding superstar outfielder Roman Anthony.
Cora expects Anthony to bat leadoff for the Red Sox, which was the role he settled into beginning in late July last season. Ian Browne of MLB.com was one of the first to report on Cora's preference for the 21-year-old slugger.
Why leadoff? Cora explained how the decision had a lot to do with Anthony's power potential, comparing him to some of the other leadoff hitters around the game -- including two former Red Sox.
“George Springer, Mookie Betts. They’ve done it before, setting the tempo. Kyle Schwarber, too. It can be 1-0 very quick, or it’s a quality at-bat.”
Anthony's stats as the leadoff hitter last season were incredible. In 31 games, including 27 starts, he slashed .336/.439/.564 with six home runs, five doubles, and a triple. He set the tone for everything the Red Sox were doing offensively during their best month of the season.
As obvious a decision as this was, it's still good for as many players as possible to know what they should expect their roles to be, and installing Roman as the leadoff batter should naturally help sort out the rest.