Roman Anthony, Trevor Story, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa closing in on IL returns for Red Sox

What happened

Boston Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony, shortstop Trevor Story, and infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa are all progressing through rehab assignments and closing in on returns from the injured list, MLB.com reported. The club has not announced activation dates for any of the players, and the reporting carries a confidence level that reflects the fluid nature of rehab timelines.

The phrase "closing in" does real work here. It is not a return date. It is not a roster move. It is the particular category of baseball news that lives between "still hurt" and "back in the lineup" — a neighborhood that Red Sox fans have spent meaningful portions of this season learning to navigate.

Why it matters

Boston is sitting at 79-65, good for second in the American League Wild Card standings at +6.0 relative to the cut line, and third in the AL East, 6.5 games behind the division leader. A four-game winning streak has the club playing its best baseball at a moment when the schedule is about to ask something of them. The math is favorable; the roster depth question is real.

Losing Anthony, Story, and Kiner-Falefa to the injured list at overlapping points in the season has asked the Red Sox to patch together their infield and outfield construction in ways that are, to put it charitably, suboptimal for a team with playoff aspirations. The potential return of all of them — even staggered — would represent a meaningful upgrade to the roster's competitive floor heading into the final weeks of the regular season.

Anthony, in particular, carries the kind of prospect-to-contributor arc that makes his availability a storyline beyond the transactional. Story's history as a middle-of-the-order shortstop gives Boston a different offensive profile when healthy. And Kiner-Falefa's defensive versatility — the ability to play multiple infield positions at a competent level — is exactly the kind of roster flexibility that becomes more valuable as September approaches and roster construction decisions multiply.

The numbers

Boston's record of 79-65 (.549) places them in a position where every game carries compounding weight. At +6.0 relative to the Wild Card cut line, the cushion is real but not comfortable — the kind of margin that invites a team to play loose while quietly demanding they do not. The current four-game winning streak suggests the club is, at minimum, trending in the right direction without the benefit of a full roster.

The upcoming schedule offers a three-game series at Miami against the Marlins, beginning Monday, August 24, with Ranger Suarez projected to face Sandy Alcantara. Tuesday brings Payton Tolle against Tyler Phillips, and Wednesday closes the series with Sonny Gray opposing Ryan Gusto. A road series against Miami is, on paper, a stretch where a team with playoff ambitions should be banking wins — which makes the potential timing of any roster additions worth watching closely.

Where the club stands

The Red Sox are 79-65, third in the AL East and second in the Wild Card race. The four-game winning streak is the kind of momentum that a front office would very much like to sustain into a stretch run, and the prospect of reinforcements from the injured list arriving during or after the Miami series adds an interesting layer to how Boston manages its roster over the next week.

Under general league rules, position players on the 10-day injured list can be on rehab assignments for up to 20 days before a club must either activate them or make a roster decision. The Red Sox have not announced where any of the players stand within that window, so the "closing in" framing from MLB.com is the operative description until the club says otherwise.

From September 1 onward, the active roster expands from 26 to 28 players under standard league rules, which changes the calculus around roster construction in ways that could affect how and when Boston chooses to activate players returning from rehab. Whether the timing of these returns aligns with that expansion window is, at this point, unknown.

What we don't know yet

MLB.com's report does not include specific timetables for any of the players, does not specify what stage of rehab each is in, and does not indicate whether any of them are on formal rehab assignments with a minor-league affiliate. "Progressing" and "closing in" are directional, not calendrical.

There is no injury diagnosis attached to any of them in the reporting, no indication of whether their respective IL stints are on the 10-day or 60-day list, and no detail about what "closing in" means in terms of days or games remaining. The club has not made an announcement. This is a progress report, not a transaction notice.

It is also worth noting that returning from the IL simultaneously — or even in close succession — would require the Red Sox to make corresponding roster moves to create space. Who comes off the active roster, and in what order, is a puzzle the front office has not yet been asked to solve publicly.

What to watch

The Miami series, beginning Monday, is the immediate backdrop. If any of the players are close enough to return during this road trip, the club would need to announce a corresponding move. Watch for any roster transactions out of Boston over the next several days — an option, a DFA, or a transfer to the 60-day IL for another player would signal that at least one is ready to be activated.

Beyond the immediate series, the broader question is sequencing. Does Boston get all of them back before the roster expands on September 1? Does one return significantly ahead of the others? The reporting does not answer those questions, and the desk will not speculate on them — but they are the right questions to be asking as the Red Sox try to arrive at the final month of the season as close to whole as they have been all year.

The four-game winning streak is a nice backdrop for this news. The Wild Card cushion is real. The rotation matchups in Miami are known quantities. What remains genuinely open is when, exactly, "closing in" becomes "back in the lineup" — and for which player it happens first.