Sam Kennedy apologizes for Roman Anthony injury controversy: ‘That’s on me, 100%’

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As part of a newsworthy interview on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” Thursday morning, Red Sox team president and CEO Sam Kennedy took ownership for a miscommunication about Roman Anthony’s hand injury earlier this month.

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In an appearance on the same show on May 22, Kennedy dismissed the notion that Anthony had any sort of tear in his right ring finger, which he injured taking a swing in Detroit on May 4. A week later, Anthony himself told WEEI that the exact injury is a “partially torn ring finger ligament in (the) ring finger CMC (carpometacarpal)” joint. While Kennedy likely didn’t know that a “sprain” is a medical term for a low-grade/mild tear, he still apologized Thursday and made it clear he had done the same in a conversation with Anthony.

“I need to own up to my mistake,” Kennedy said. “I was unequivocal in my response to you regarding Roman and his situation. Apparently, I missed that day at Harvard Medical School. I shouldn’t be sitting here talking about a sprain. A sprain is a tear. I was reading off a report that identified the sprain.

“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 getting back.”

Anthony, who hit .229 with one homer and a .675 OPS in 30 games before being sidelined in early May, has had a series of setbacks in his recovery. The latest, which came two weeks ago, involved him having to halt his swinging progression after feeling discomfort while trying to hit off a tee for the first time. Recent photos of Anthony in Boston during the team’s road trip to New York and Tampa showed him wearing a splint/soft cast on his hand. He has not yet resumed swinging.

The Red Sox were hoping to avoid having to place Anthony on the injured list when he first got hurt, then were hopeful he’d miss just a couple weeks. Now, his absence is approaching the six-week mark.

“Roman is doing everything he can to get back and get better,” Kennedy said. “Putting a timetable on baseball injuries is really, really hard. That’s why we try not to do it. Then when we don’t do that, it sounds evasive and like we’re dodging it.”

Kennedy declined to get into the details of lefty starter Garrett Crochet’s lat strain, which was a source of confusion late Wednesday. After The Boston Globe reported that Crochet had said his injury (suffered while rehabbing from shoulder fatigue) was “a lot worse than we thought,” chief baseball officer Craig Breslow disputed that notion in a text exchange with MassLive, saying “Garrett continues to make good progress with the lat strain.” Kennedy didn’t weigh in.

“Unfortunately, he’s dealing with a lat issue,” Kennedy said. “I’ll stop there. If anything, I learn from my mistakes in terms of putting timetables and getting into details. That’s not my role and I’m not gonna do it.”

The team president disputed the notion that communication over injuries has led to any clubhouse issues for the Red Sox.

“I think ‘massive chasm’ would be a mischaracterization,” disputing one of the show’s producers’ use of the term. “Perhaps not nailing exactly the nature of the injury or communicating it effectively publicly, that definitely falls on us but without intention. There’s just no upside to try to mislead and misstate something. If we have, we have to do a better job of that.

“I don’t think there was a feeling with the players that there was any intention to do anything other than try to relay information in a transparent way. We need to do a better job with that across the organization.”

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