BOSTON — When the Red Sox placed Roman Anthony on the 10-day injured list with a sprained ligament in his right hand last week, the hope was that the outfielder could return to action after the minimum amount of time required.

But while the club isn’t ruling that out, it’s looking likely Anthony could be sidelined for at least a little bit longer.

Anthony has not yet resumed baseball activities and is still focused on regaining his grip strength, interim manager Chad Tracy said pregame Tuesday. He said Anthony has been making small incremental improvements but things haven’t progressed to a point where he’s ready to swing a bat.

“Not yet, mostly strengthening and eventually we’ll get to like strong gripping,” Tracy said. “That’s the biggest thing for him is going to be when do we get to feel like the grip strength is there, and when we get there we’re in a better spot, so that’s what they’re focusing on.”

Anthony will be eligible to come off the IL on Friday for the start of the club’s upcoming road series against the Atlanta Braves. While three days isn’t much time to go from no baseball activities to game action, Tracy said if Anthony gets to a point where he’s comfortable swinging a bat then things could ramp up quickly.

“It’s hard to say. I shouldn’t answer that, I can’t answer that, but it’s hard to say because it’s something that if it improves quickly he hasn’t been out that long so maybe he would feel comfortable with that,” Tracy said. “Really the best answer for that is we’ve got to see when his grip strength gets there and once he gets that is he able to get in the cage and swing and feel good about it, and we’ll see what timeline we’re on before we can answer that.”

If Anthony can return to action this weekend he’d give the Red Sox lineup a badly needed boost facing a Braves team that ranks first in the NL East and entered Tuesday with the best record in MLB.

©2026 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.