I'd expect him to play 3b less and less going forward. He's not very good at it.
If they can't move Story, Mayer will just end up at 3b next season too. 🫣
Holliday isn't a fair comp as he was only up for 10 days before being sent down.
Churio: 619 OPS on 6/11/25, never sent down and ended at 791
Merrill: 671 OPS on 6/11/25, never sent down and ended at 826 (Merrill had a 527 OPS 4/24-6/7)
If they haven't sent Campbell down yet, I don't believe they will in the future.
He had a 978 OPS from 6/1 - 8/31 last year. However, I'm not really seeing any signs of life from his at bats right now. Could he get hot? Sure. If he does, then let him back into a fulltime role. Until then, he can platoon.
You can say that your eye test shows he gets the yips, but last year he had 3 Outs Above Average going In on the ball and 3 Outs Above Average going Back on the ball. He's 4 OAA so far this year (Duran is -2 and having a very rough season missing several very easy plays in LF). Abreu's success rate is 3% greater than expected while Duran's success rate is 1% less than expected. Abreu has missed no catches with a catch probability of 90% or greater, but Duran has missed 5 so far this year.
At worst, you hold onto Duran through the season and have to rotate 4 guys through the lineup for the year. Maybe an additional trade partner shows up at the deadline?
To make the point moot, just put him on the roster on day one. His play either puts him into a fulltime starting role or not. I believe they messed up that decision and got caught in the middle here. We've seen the career year from Duran in '24 and it's not coming back, especially if he can't replicate the defense (something that should be more consistent year to year).
It's just easier to move on from Duran for me due to age, skill set that will decline and overall vibe that I personally don't enjoy. I'm not Craig Breslow so I clearly don't make that call though. Cora loves him so we get to see atop the lineup every friggin' day.
Because a player is popular, it's harder to trade a player? How does that make any sense. It should be easier to trade a player that is popular. If Breslow is making moves to appease a fanbase, the Sox will never get to the playoffs under his watch. They are toast.
Duran is having his worst season since 2022. Roman Anthony should have been the starting LFer since Opening Day. He has a higher ceiling than Duran. Just because you already have a capable OFer in the way doesn't make it the right move. You have the best prospect in baseball. You don't sit him because you have a guy that hits 750 in front of him who struggles to catch balls with a catch rate of 99%.
2004 was the 29th ranked defense (Manny, Millar, Damon, Kapler, Nomar, McCarty, Mueller all had bad defensive seasons). You can win with a bad defense. You just really have to thread that needle.
It's the recent history of halfassing a trade deadline/offseason:
Two DH's! (Masa, Raffy)
Logjam in OF
Logjam at SS due to a bad contract
Plan at 2b?
Relying on the pitching coach to solve for a lack of talent in arms
I disagree and I'm not the only one. It's been theorized (again it is just a theory) by Section 10, SoxProspects and many others. At best, they goofed on calling him up and froze on the decision making process. I don't know which scenario is worse.
I think Abreu still should get most of the reps in RF. I'd platoon CF with Rafaela/Duran and plop Anthony in LF. I don't really want to play Rafaela all over the place. I think the team is kind of stuck at the moment. They probably need to trade a guy.
If he wins ROY for a team that is currently languishing below .500 because of their horrible starting pitching, it won't matter much. I'm more concerned about this team in '26 and beyond TBH.
It is why they took so long, to reduce his chances. What other reason? He was the most "ready" player available. He was more advanced than Campbell or Mayer.