Red Sox activate Curtis Mead as replacement for Roman Anthony

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Sep 30, 2026

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — When the Red Sox acquired Curtis Mead a week prior to the trade deadline in exchange for Connelly Early, they envisioned the 25-year-old fortifying the club’s lineup ahead of what the team hoped would be a big playoff push.

The Red Sox probably didn’t expect Mead to fulfill that role quite like this.

Mead was activated from the injured list ahead of Game 2 of the wild-card series against the New York Yankees as an injury replacement for Roman Anthony, who aggravated his pre-existing right hand injury while suffering multiple new muscle strains during Game 1 on Tuesday night. Mead is not in the starting lineup but will be available to pinch hit off the bench in the do-or-die elimination game.

Mead confirmed the news to the Boston Herald shortly before the Red Sox put out an official announcement.

“I’ll be active tonight, which is nice,” Mead said. “It’s been a longer journey back, so it’s cool.”

Mead hasn’t played since July 27, when he was hit by a pitch on his left wrist in his second at bat as a member of the Red Sox. The infielder suffered a fractured wrist on the play and was considered a long shot for the playoffs.

He didn’t even start hitting off the Trajekt machine until this past weekend, and his first time facing live pitching was just this Monday, when he hit live batting practice against Tyler Samaniego during the club’s workout.

Mead said this past weekend was the point where he felt a return for the playoffs might be realistic.

“Early last week I started to feel better and as we got to the weekend I was able to hit at a higher intensity,” Mead said. “Faced the Trajekt (machine) and then faced some pitching on Monday, that was the final thing I felt like I had to check off, and after getting through that I felt pretty good about where I was at.”

Prior to his arrival in Boston, Mead was enjoying a breakout season at the plate with the Washington Nationals. The infielder batted .254 with 17 home runs, 48 RBI and an .852 OPS, and his advanced metrics suggested his massive gains were durable.

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