SAN FRANCISCO -- When the Red Sox agreed to an eight-year, $60 million contract with Kristian Campbell less than a week into the highly touted prospect’s Major League career, it demonstrated the club’s faith in the right-handed hitter’s long-term outlook.
While that hasn’t wavered, Boston has decided that it is in Campbell’s best short-term interests to go back to Triple-A Worcester. The club optioned Campbell to Worcester on Friday and activated outfielder Wilyer Abreu from the 10-day injured list.
After he won the American League’s Rookie of the Month Award in March/April, Campbell’s bat went ice cold and his defense at second base became spotty.
“I think it was a good time for him to reset, to be honest with you,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “Go down there and work on a few things that we have seen the last few weeks that he’s not doing here and, just to go to that environment and work on those. Not only offensively but defensively too. I think it's a good time for that.”
Of late, the Red Sox have been using David Hamilton as the primary option at second base and that will continue for now, according to Cora. The speedy Hamilton has also had a hard time getting his bat going this season. He will get most of the starts against righties until Alex Bregman returns from the injured list at some point in July.
Once Bregman is back, there’s a strong chance Marcelo Mayer, Boston's No. 2 prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 8, will move from third base to second. Right-handed-hitting Romy Gonzalez is another option to play second base for Boston. Cora said Mayer could see some action at second before Bregman returns.
With Abreu back on Friday night, Roman Anthony, MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 prospect, started at DH.
“He's not going to DH all the time,” said Cora. “We cannot do that to him or to us. So we'll figure out how we'll use the DH spot to rotate guys. Obviously lefties, righties matchups that we can exploit, we'll use the DH spot to give Jarren [Duran] a day [away from the outfield] or Roman in this case. So we'll see.”
The 22-year-old Campbell broke camp with the team after winning the second base job in Spring Training. In his first 28 games and 99 at-bats, Campbell slashed .313/.420/.515 with eight doubles, four homers and 12 RBIs.
But in 35 games and 130 at-bats after that, Campbell’s line was .154/.236/.215 with two homers and nine RBIs.
“He's not the first one that has been optioned in his career,” said Cora. “There's been a lot of good players that made the team out of Spring Training and got sent down, and then they came back and did their job. We expect him to work as hard as possible. He was doing that here. But I think to kind of detach him from this and the third deck and the lights of the big leagues and go down there and work on a few things that we truly believe is going to make him better.”
Keep in mind that Campbell -- selected by the Red Sox in the fourth round of the 2023 Draft out of Georgia Tech -- has only 138 games and 601 plate appearances in the Minors. Only 19 of those games were at Triple-A.
When Spring Training started, the biggest priority the Red Sox set for Campbell was for him to become more comfortable with all the nuances involved in playing second base.
Though Campbell’s work ethic has been noted by just about everyone, it hasn’t translated in the field, as his minus-14 defensive runs saved at second base ranks last for any player at any position in 2025. As a group, Red Sox infielders have accumulated minus-13 outs above average, tied with the Padres for the third-worst total in MLB.
At Triple-A, Campbell will split reps between first and second base. He had been working out at first for the Red Sox, but never got into a game at that position.
With Triston Casas (ruptured left patellar tendon) out for the season, first base continues to be a position of uncertainty for Boston.