If ever there is a case to be made for trading prospects while their value is high, the Red Sox of the last few years are a strong example. For years, we heard about the “Big Three” or Marcelo Mayer, Kyle Teel and Roman Anthony, a trio that was expected to be the core group in Boston for the next decade or so. Even when the Red Sox struggled, there appeared to be better days ahead, and those days looked brighter still when the Big Three became the Big Four following a surge of versatile infielder/outfielder Kristian Campbell.
In the past year, though, reality has set in. Prospects are lottery tickets, and good prospects are the $50 scratchers of the baseball world. But even $50 scratchers can lose, and so far, the Red Sox have found that Mayer can’t stay healthy (and has not been particularly good when he was) and neither can Anthony (who was excellent last year but not great when healthy this year). Teel was shipped to the White Sox in the Garrett Crochet deal, and has struggle with three major injuries this season (hamstring, knee and now ankle) while batting .190.
And yet, amid that troika of disappointments, the worst of the sagas has been that of Kristian Campbell.
Kristian Campbell’s Red Sox Decline
For a month last year, Campbell looked like a future star, the only one of the group who started 2025 on the big-league roster. He as the Red Sox’s Opening Day second baseman. He was hitting .301 with a .902 OPS at the end of April. But he fell apart from there, hitting .154 in his next 39 games, with an astounding 42 strikeouts in 130 at-bats. Campbell was demoted to Triple A, and has not been back to the big leagues since.
In fact, he looked like a lost cause in Worcester here in 2026, too. On July 1, Campbell was hitting .211, with an OPS of just .626. He had just two home runs in 221 at-bats.
Red Sox Gave a $60 Million Extension
But he is still just 24, and maybe it’s too early to give up on him. The Red Sox really can’t afford to do so of course, because they gave Campbell an eight-year, $60 million contract last spring that looks especially unwise in retrospect. Finally, there has been a ray of light in the gloom of Campbell’s recent history: He’s begun to hit again in Worcester.
It’s a small sample size, but for a player desperately in need of positive momentum, Campbell is getting it. He’s batting .390 over his last 14 games, with two homers and a 1.162 OPS. Given how incredibly difficult his last year has been, this is big news for Campbell.
Kristian Campbell Staying Positive
The road back to the Red Sox could be a difficult one for Campbell. The team has abandoned the project of turning him into an infielder, and has played him exclusively in the outfield this season. With a fairly crowded outfield picture at the big-league level, Campbell’s future is murky, even if he keeps hitting.
Credit Campbell for never losing his confidence, though.
In June, he told MLB.com: “It’s my first time experiencing [these struggles], but once I get through it, I’m not coming back here. I’m excited though, in general, to get through it, and I’m taking it in, because this is a story I can tell somebody when I’m 30, 31 or 32 and maybe there’s another prospect or something coming along that’s maybe going through something that I went through. So I’ve got to remember all these [struggles] now, for down the road just in case I have to bring it up to a young kid one day.”
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