Kristian Campbell was one of the most exciting players in the sport at this time a year ago. Baseball America had ranked him the #4 prospect in MLB on the heels of a .330/.439/.558 showing in the minors. Campbell was generally viewed alongside or even slightly above Marcelo Mayer as the Red Sox’s second-best prospect behind Roman Anthony. The organization seemed to share that assessment, as they built their trade package for Garrett Crochet around Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery rather than including anyone in their top three.
Campbell broke camp despite a mediocre Spring Training performance. He started at second base on Opening Day and got out to a roaring start, hitting .301/.407/.495 through the end of April. Boston quickly locked him up on an eight-year extension that guaranteed $60MM and extended their club control window by as many as four seasons.
Nine months later, it’s not clear if he has a path to playing time in the short term. Campbell’s bat cratered after the scorching start. He hit .159/.243/.222 over 140 plate appearances between the start of May and the middle of June. The Sox optioned him to Triple-A on June 20 and kept him in the minors for the rest of the season.
Campbell posted good numbers in the minors, at least on the surface. He hit .273/.382/.417 across 319 Triple-A plate appearances. It certainly wasn’t on par with his breakout 2024 season, but that’s above-average production at age 23. Yet it came with an elevated 26.3% strikeout rate that was more than six points higher than his mark from the previous season. Campbell also averaged a paltry 84 MPH off the bat with a 30% hard contact rate, and he put more than half his batted balls on the ground. He took a lot of walks and the results were good overall, yet the batted ball data wasn’t all that encouraging.
The track record is strong enough that Campbell remains a promising offensive player, albeit with less confidence that he’ll be an impact bat than they probably had a year ago. The biggest concern is on the other side of the ball.
Campbell’s second base defense was a disaster. Defensive Runs Saved graded him 16 runs below average in 471 2/3 innings. Only Luis García Jr. had a worse DRS mark at the position, and that came in twice as many innings. Campbell was tied for third from the bottom in Statcast’s Outs Above Average metric (again behind players who got more time at the position). He committed seven errors and had a .968 fielding percentage that was last among the 38 second basemen to play 400+ innings.
It was bad enough that it seems the Red Sox have essentially given up on Campbell as a viable second baseman. He only started 11 games there in the minors, none of which came after August 8. Campbell closed the season bouncing between left field, center field and first base.
The Red Sox have a question at second base but don’t appear to be seriously considering Campbell there. They’re reportedly focused on defense as they look outside the organization for help at the keystone. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow acknowledged last week that the Sox are “going to give (Campbell) a look in the outfield” (link via Christopher Smith of MassLive). David Hamilton, Romy Gonzalez and Nick Sogard lead an uninspiring internal group of second base options. They’ve traded for Willson Contreras and still have Triston Casas — who is ironically in a somewhat similar spot as Campbell — ahead of him on the first base depth chart.
Campbell is a good enough athlete that it’s not out of the question that he’ll be a solid outfielder. The Red Sox don’t have many at-bats to offer him there, though. They’re already loaded across the outfield with Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Anthony. Breslow has consistently downplayed their desire to trade Duran or Abreu. That seems less likely now that they’ve addressed the rotation in other ways. They’re not going to move an established above-average regular merely to open playing time for Campbell.
The Sox did lose lefty masher Rob Refsnyder in free agency, but they’re planning to give Abreu more at-bats against southpaws. Relegating the righty-hitting Campbell to a short side platoon role isn’t ideal for his development. Breslow pointed to 29-year-old Nate Eaton as a possibility to pick up some of the at-bats that Refsnyder had taken.
It leaves Campbell without a clear role as Spring Training approaches. If the Red Sox don’t feel he’s a viable infielder, he’s not going to have much utility off the bench. He still has two minor league options and could go back to Triple-A. That’s the likeliest outcome to begin the season and would at least give him continued work in the outfield. They can bide their time that way, but it’s clearly not an ideal setup for a player who very recently looked like a franchise player.
There hasn’t been anything to suggest the Red Sox are considering trade possibilities this offseason. Although Campbell’s extension doesn’t preclude them from trading him, it’d be essentially without precedent for a team to sell low on a top prospect who is one season into an eight-year deal. The Sox could probably shed the entire contract if that were their only goal, but they’d need to accept pennies on the dollar in terms of the trade return.
Maybe the situation will sort itself out early in the season. An outfield injury or two could get Campbell into the lineup. No one is writing off his career before he turns 24. It’s nevertheless rare for opportunities to dry up as quickly as they have for a player who was held in this regard as a prospect. If Campbell spends the first half of the season in the minors and the Sox are contending, he may become a more realistic trade candidate around the deadline.
Image courtesy of John Jones, Imagn Images.
Trade him to the Angels or the Padres.
Ah yes, I can still remember the goons buying high on this kid last April. Followed by a fantasy baseball collapse of epic proportions. By August, he was playing 1st at Pawtucket. It really is incredible how fast player perception and value changes.
Flipped him for Dylan Crews. Hope I got the better end of the deal there.
And change back. This kid is crazy gifted. Just a fluky bad year.
Seam – Nonsense… he was abused and totally mismanaged. He is too nice a kid to tell coaches and management “no”.
Last season was puzzling – how could the Red Sox not know before the regular season that Campbell was a terrible fielding 2b?
And I mean really terrible, not just marginal…
I think part of it was mental spiraling caused by how bad he was cratering at the plate. If he was actually THAT bad at second there’s no way it would’ve taken until last spring for it to become so obvious. But I do think whether it’s second base or an outfield spot or whatever, for his sake pick one spot and stick to it. They jerked him around with all the position changes last year and I think that very obviously played a role in his struggles. They didn’t do anything to slow the game down for him and make it easy.
He never was before last year. It was a strange year for him. Have to think something going on personally, or he just spiraled. He was never a great defender but words like “adequate,” “fine,” and “solid” described him all the way through the minors. You don’t play shortstop in the ACC with as bad a glove as he showed in 2025.
Maybe the Sox thought Campbell looked decent w/the glove in comparison to Vaughn Grissom.
He had no track record of being terrible..so impossible to kkow he hadn’t ever failed or played poorly
Scott Kingery vibes.
Unfortunately I agree. Hopefully this plays out a bit better.
He’ll be fine. Injury explains a lot of his struggles. His defense does suck though, so outfield is the likely spot. Injuries and or trades will eventually get him in the lineup. He may start in AAA though.
Red Sox currently have a big opening at 2B, they sure could use him there. But no, add to the already massive log jam in the OF.
His defense was horrible at 2b
So they should coach him up? They clearly saw something in him to put him there last year.
I wonder if Campbell shows promise in the outfield throughout the year, would the Red Sox be more interested after this season in exploring Duran or Abreu trades.
They should be interested now
The issue clearly was that he was rushed to the majors. He doesn’t need to have a defined role on the major league roster going into the 2026 season. Take some pressure off the kid and let him progress naturally instead of making him feel like he has to deliver on all the hype on day one. Roster crunches tend to have a way of working themselves out on their own anyway. Let him just focus on his game and he’ll regain his confidence and we’ll see where the chips fall.
It could still be true that he was rushed, but bringing a top prospect up in his age 23 season is not an unusually aggressive move.
Depends on the person and player.
100% true. I guess my point is that he followed a pretty normal development timeline for a college draftee.
It’s easy to blame their FO in hindsight for rushing him but I don’t think their evaluators were smoking anything to think he was ready. That seemed to be the league consensus as well, hence why he was a top 5-10 prospect.
Guys just flop out of the gate sometimes…or flop period.
He played a season at GA Tech before being drafted. Then he hit the cover off the ball: 2023 and 2024 Minor League Player of the Year, and the coaches loved the kid, similiar character to a young Mookie Betts…so the Red Sox did rush him, but the scouts were always very divided on whether his unorthodox stance wouldwould be exposed by inside heat…once MLB went after this issue…..he cheated and flew open and was crushed by sliders and off speed away. So the old-school scouts were right… and the driveline bat-speed is king people were wrong… and now he is going back to some basics to get him more balanced, stronger, and better connected to his elite contact skills.
Yeah, people like to say players lack character etc but the reality is that teams have whole staffs of people trying to find the hole in players’ swings. Lots of young guys make it to the majors just to have their weakness exposed – then every team copies them.
The question is whether he can adjust to deal with whatever the issue is.
I honestly do not know.
Another good example of why, when someone offers you tens of millions of dollars to play a sport when you don’t even yet have a clear profile or track record, you should always as a player take that money.
The Red Sox simply have a logjam of position players between outfield, first base, and DH. And that’s without considering Campbell. As his defense showed last year, he is just not a viable answer at second base, so it becomes where does he fit in the outfield or first base. And unfortunately for him, he doesn’t fit anywhere right now. The Red Sox should start him in AAA, and give him more time to continue to develop his confidence again at the plate and learn the positions he’ll be able to play. There will always be injuries and poor performance; Campbell will have opportunities in the majors during the year to show what he can do.
A new sports car, girlfriend and $60M will surely make him feel better about being a minor league baseball player. Down in the minors Campbell will be the “big man on campus”.
Campbell is old school, he has pride, and he will compete.
I just don’t understand where he is going to fall .It breaks my heart, because he seems like he could be a star if he could find some consistency at the highest level.
I think the Red Sox are truly looking at the outfield as an open battle. If anyone really looks bad in spring training, it wouldn’t shock me to see the Sox take pennies on the dollar to make a deal happen.
No, trade him to the Dodgers or Blue Jays so he can play in the World Series.
Yeah both those teams are desperate for poor fielding players with long term deals who have poor exit velocity numbers.
Mets and Sox match up so well for a OF/IF trade
Mets are pretty set in the OF. They have one of the top OF prospects in the game, Carson Bunge, who’s just about ready now. He’ll play LF.
They’ll never learn.
Start paying all of them with production contracts. And stop with the projection contract failures.
Young players would get what they deserve for early career success, and you would rid yourself of post big contract complacency.
But…getting what you earn scares them. So…the fans continue to pay more, just to pay off stupid contracts like his.
I mean the Sox probably signed him to the deal knowing that they could eat the cost if he turns into a bust. The most they will ever have to pay him in one season is $16.25M in 2032, which is not $16.25M in today’s dollars.
For a large market team, eating the equivalent of ~$13M in today’s dollars wouldn’t be fun but it won’t be an anchor. And I assume if there is somehow a salary cap by that point, there will be some degree of grandfathering with regard to existing contracts.
Yeah you really had to wonder if this kid was pushed to far too fast. That last jump to the majors is a hell of a jump, and some make it easy and some don’t. It’s always about adjustments how you’re getting pitched.
The Mets trade pieces in the infield have less value than the Sox outfielders. Baty or Mauricio isn’t going to bring back Duran or Abreu.
Play him a Worcester, give him steady OF time. No pressure, if there’s an injury give him a call. He’s still young, there’s still time.
60 million? Way to go kid. Kind of a burn on the Red Sox brain trust.
He probably won’t repeat it, but for the record Romy Gonzalez was really good last year.
Maybe not .300 again, but his Statcast numbers were really good, which is sign that he wasn’t just benefiting from flukey hits.
The Sox have a lot of major league/majors ready players and no where to play them all, and the still have a good farm. They need to ditch yoshida at the very least and trade Duran or Campbell for some prospects that aren’t gonna be ready for a a year or two.
It’s pretty clear at this point that Marcelo Mayer will be the Red Sox opening day 3B assuming he stays healthy in camp. That said, Mayer might have been a candidate for 2B had they not whiffed on FA Alex Bregman.
Going forward, Mayer profiles best at the hot corner with his high ceiling bat, strong arm and below average speed.
Kristian Campbell ought to get one more shot at 2B even if that opportunity is at AAA. The Red Sox need to prioritize 2B for him in the short term and forget about adding to his defensive versatility. If he fails again at the keystone, they can then begin shifting him around the diamond and on the grass.
The Red Sox need to see what they have in Campbell going forward, especially with their extended financial commitment to him and team need at 2B. The only way Campbell will have any future value to the team or as a decent trade chip is for him to perform and start living up to his contract and the hype. In my mind, the best way to do this is by keeping him focused on one position and not throwing him into their already crowded pool of outfielders.
Dude exploded onto the scene in April and was rewarded for it. Campbell has reportedly been eating some hearty soup this winter and added about 10-15 pounds of muscle. Kid’s got a ton of raw talent and very coachable attitude. I’m hopeful there’s a place for him on the 2026 Red Sox, perhaps as a super-utility type who gets into almost every game and has an at-bat or two. But he needs to work on his defense. A LOT. Hopefully that’s improved. Definitely has the tools
The short answer is yes. He is signed long term and to give up on his bat after a small sample would be stupid. He was too good up until mid-May last year. He won’t get at bats in the OF or at DH, so 2B is the most likely landing spot with platoon backups.