{"id":98002,"date":"2025-03-23T18:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T22:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=98002"},"modified":"2025-03-23T18:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T22:11:11","slug":"red-sox-favoring-kristian-campbell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/23\/red-sox-favoring-kristian-campbell\/","title":{"rendered":"Evaluating Kristian Campbell\u2019s Potential as the Red Sox\u2019s Starting Second Baseman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Across Spring Training, few positions have been as in flux as the Boston Red Sox\u2019s starting second baseman spot. But as the preseason\u2019s final week wraps up, rookie Kristian Campbell<\/a> has seemingly emerged as the frontrunner.<\/p>\n

The Bregman Solution<\/h3>\n

For a while, Alex Bregman<\/a> seemed like the top man for the job. Despite winning his first Gold Glove last season at third base, the free agent expressed a willingness to play second base. With Rafael Devers stubbornly entrenched at The Hot Corner, the former Houston Astro signed with Boston, vocally open to playing any position necessary.<\/p>\n

Building up strength in his shoulders that plagued him throughout 2024, Devers sat out the first few weeks of Spring Training. Bregman went right to work at third base and has yet to spend time at second base. After allegedly contentious talks with manager Alex Cora and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, Devers said on March 13 that he was fine shifting to designated hitter.<\/p>\n

But who would play at second?<\/p>\n

Kristian Campbell Rising<\/h3>\n

Days later, Campbell began getting the most time at second base. The 6\u20193\u201d right-handed hitter started slow this preseason, opening 1-for-17 at the plate. But Cora & Co. are seeing enough promise in Baseball America\u2019s No. 4 prospect to give him regular reps. And he\u2019s rewarded that trust by raising his line to .174\/.304\/.283.<\/p>\n

Campbell made his strongest case for the starting spot this weekend. Hitting leadoff and playing second base on March 22, he made big plays in the field and with his bat. Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Jonny DeLuca hammered Tanner Houck\u2019s third pitch for what looked like a sure single. Instead, Campbell dove and made a highlight-reel grab<\/a> \u2014 an exciting preview of his athletic upside in the infield. He also smacked his first home run of the preseason in the 8th inning.<\/p>\n

Campbell was back at second base on March 23 for Boston\u2019s Grapefruit League finale against the Minnesota Twins. Batting sixth, his name looked right at home as part of what very well could be the Red Sox\u2019s Opening Day starting lineup<\/a> on March 27 at Texas.<\/p>\n

Other Options<\/h3>\n

Still, Cora has yet to name his starting second baseman officially. Nick Sogard played multiple games there this preseason but recently shifted to shortstop and first base. Vaughn Grissom also had plenty of opportunities to prove himself this spring, yet his .178\/.300\/.235 resulted in a demotion to Triple-A Worcester.<\/p>\n

That leaves David Hamilton as Campbell\u2019s biggest competition. The utility infielder recorded 294 at-bats in 2024 for the Red Sox, hitting .248\/.303\/.395 with 33 stolen bases. And he\u2019s been a steady force in Spring Training. Along with a .265\/.368\/.449 line, he has nine stolen bases and two home runs. If Cora wants a hotter bat and greater speed to start the season \u2014 Campbell has yet to steal a base the spring \u2014 Hamilton could get the nod.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see how things shake out March 24-25 as Boston heads to Mexico for a pair of exhibition games<\/a> against the Sultanes de Monterrey of the Mexican Pacific League.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Mike Watters-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Across Spring Training, few positions have been as in flux as the Boston Red Sox\u2019s starting second baseman spot. But as the preseason\u2019s final week wraps up, rookie Kristian Campbell has seemingly emerged as the frontrunner. The Bregman Solution For a while, Alex Bregman seemed like the top man for the job. Despite winning his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5479,"featured_media":98015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1156,1734,240,6315,28602,28705,1535,6220],"class_list":["post-98002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-redsox","tag-alex-bregman","tag-alex-cora","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-david-hamilton","tag-kristian-campbell","tag-nick-sogard","tag-rafael-devers","tag-vaughn-grissom"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98002"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98017,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98002\/revisions\/98017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}