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Although Kristian Campbell has had a few days off in a row, there’s reason to believe that he could solve the biggest hole in the infield at the moment. Starting with the game Friday against the Braves, Campbell was practicing infield drills at first base.
When asked about it, Campbell said, “Whatever makes the team better, that’s the position I’ll play. I’m used to second base, because I played that in college. But whatever makes the team at the time.” That’s the kind of attitude you want from your hopeful future All-Star who is under contract for the next eight years.
Campbell is a gifted athlete. He’s started at second base, center field, and left field this season. It would likely behoove the Red Sox to pick a position for him to stay at, though. He's mired in a tough May slump — he's slashing .085/.104/.149 with a 31% strikeout rate this month — and, like most young players, would likely benefit from the stability of focusing on a sole defensive spot. Why not the position that is currently a black hole?
Triston Casas won’t be back until sometime next season, and it's not like he was lighting the world on fire when he was healthy this year. Romy Gonzalez is taking longer to recover from his thigh contusion than anticipated, Abraham Toro looks overmatched against big league pitching, and Nick Sogard seems incredibly uncomfortable at first this season. Yes, Campbell will likely experience some growing pains if and when he switches, but he’s young and talented. He overcame most of his issues at second base fairly quickly, so there’s no reason to believe he won’t adjust to first base on the fly. Alex Cora has said that, as of now, Campbell won’t see game action at first unless the team is up by 15 or down by 10, but it looks like the possibility of a position switch is something the team is taking seriously.
Outside of solving the general conundrum of who will man the cold corner, the biggest boost the team would receive from moving Campbell to first would be the fact that it would open the door for top prospect Marcelo Mayer to break into the big leagues.
Mayer is a natural shortstop, a position that desperately needs to be upgraded, but he’s recently been starting games at second base for Worcester. His offense hasn’t taken a significant downturn with the position change, and his defense has still been great. Moving Campbell to first base means Mayer gets to bring one of the hottest bats in the minor leagues to the big league club. There’s an argument to be made to bring Mayer up to play shortstop, move Trevor Story to second, and have Campbell man first as well. Story played well at second during his first season in Boston (when Xander Bogaerts was still with the team), and the position (which is less physically demanding) would likely keep him healthier throughout a long season, but thus far, Cora seems dead set on having Story continue to play shortstop.
It’s possible that moving Campbell to first won’t work, though it’s unlikely to be a worse experiment than whatever else the team is currently throwing at the wall. Campbell is willing to do whatever the team needs for him to do, and that’s an early sign of leadership. Getting him more work before games, and then hopefully in game situations where the Red Sox are up by a lot, only helps to expedite the call-up of Mayer. That will provide another youth injection into the team and finally, hopefully, solidify first base for future seasons.
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