Roman Anthony has stopped swinging since May and has already missed 32 games with no return in sight. The Boston Red Sox CEO, Sam Kennedy, admitted how the team botched up Anthony’s injury in his sophomore season. Now, Anthony opened up about his latest situation, and what he said could be another depressing update for Boston. Anthony still feels pain from his partially torn ring finger ligament, the exact injury that the Boston front office failed to identify.

“Progressing a lot slower than I had imagined at the beginning of this, but definitely progressing, which is the biggest thing. It’s just pain in my hand. That’s what it was until it’s not that; I’ll be here. But as soon as it feels like it starts to get a whole lot better, I’m sure we’ll have a better idea of where we’re at and how it’s going to go from there,” Masslive’s Christopher Smith quoted Anthony.

On May 4, Anthony injured his finger/wrist on a swing during a game against the Detroit Tigers. He was placed on a 10-day, and attempted to return to swinging but experienced soreness. After his scheduled 10-day IL, he completed dry swings but experienced discomfort when hitting off a tee. The Red Sox stopped his swing and delayed his rehab.

Despite Anthony’s delayed recovery, the Red Sox front office went into denial mode. “He’s got a sprain in the ligament at the base of the ring finger; there’s no evidence of the tear,” Kennedy said last month. Anthony himself dismissed it, saying it was a “partially torn ring finger ligament.”

“I need to own up to my mistake,” Kennedy said on Thursday. “He needed to correct, I think, what I said, which was that I referred to it as a sprain. It was a sprain. That was true. But that is also a tear. The degree, the level, I just shouldn’t be wading into that. That’s on me 100%… I apologize for my mistake there. I’ve communicated with Roman about that. That’s all good. The most important thing is that he’s doing the work to get back.”

However, by then, Anthony’s injury had already taken a wrong turn. As per his latest update, he is yet to recover from pain. Only after his pain removal could a return timeline be scheduled. Till then, there’s no Roman Anthony to be around the Red Sox dugout. “I don’t think the plan was very sound,” former pitcher Adam Ottavino said the Red Sox “overdid it” with Anthony.

Anthony was coming off a .292 season last year, and while this year, his bat was yet to be fired up, hitting only .229, the Red Sox’s 28-39 record just needs Anthony back at the earliest. The blame is on the front office for botching it up. An aggressive trade deadline could only save the team from here.

The Red Sox need to look beyond Roman Anthony

“Up until this point, it hasn’t been expected to be fully healed yet… I think it’s anywhere from six to eight weeks,” Anthony has a rough estimate about his return. By then, the All-Star break would be over, and the Red Sox would need to race in the second half of the season. Looking beyond Anthony and trading new sluggers by the deadline is the only viable option left.

The first option could be the Houston Astros’ Jeremy Pena. He is hitting .282 and is currently on a one-year deal with the Astros. He is represented by Scott Boras and is unlikely to sign an extension if not huge to his close to free agency. So, the Astros could look for a trading partner, and that .282 batting is what the Red Sox need right now. But will the Red Sox offer an extension? That would be a question.

The Astros have another shot, Isaac Paredes, who is also rumored. He is widely viewed as a premier target for the Red Sox. He excels at pulling fly balls and hitting for power, making him a perfect fit for Fenway Park’s unique dimensions. Still, considering how the Red Sox went rough in the last offseason, we are not expecting much.

Roman Anthony’s long timeline to return may just force the team to trade a few.