Kristian Campbell talks lessons learned
FORT MYERS, Fla. - Sunday, Kristian Campbell was told his dream was coming true - he would be living life as a big league baseball player.
Moments after the news had been delivered, with the outside world not officially knowing of the roster decision, Craig Breslow reflected on the story of how this player got to this point.
"I don’t know if we could point to a particular play and say the switch just turned," the Red Sox chief baseball officer said of Campbell. "I would say it was a series of incremental improvements, whether it was a couple of really, really good defensive plays a couple of weeks ago, and then there was the play he made in Minnesota when (Minnesota's Byron) Buxton tried to stretch a ball down the line into a double. And then turning a double play. And then having a good at-bat that ended up in a walk, and a good at-bat that ended up in a line-out and, finally, a good at-bat that ended up in a home run. I don’t know it was this single moment in time as opposed to a process and that’s what we should expect from a 22-year-old kid."
True, there wasn't a single moment. But there were undoubtedly glimpses over the past six weeks that helped define the journey that landed Campbell on the Opening Day roster, starting with Feb. 28.
The image of Kristian Campbell on this blustery Friday was hard to forget. This wasn't the guy so many in the Red Sox' organization had come to know.
The player who routinely took all the right pitches, made all the right contact and littered each game with fist bumps and smiles was a shell of himself. The fairytale road to Campbell becoming a big leaguer had gotten uncomfortably, and unexpectedly, rocky.
Even before Campbell stepped into the batter's box in Clearwater to face Jesus Luzardo on the last day of February there had been uncomfortable reminders. His first seven Grapefruit League plate appearances seemed awkward, with the righty hitter consistently being beat on fastballs while lunging at breaking pitches.
Now Luzardo was about to punctuate the problems.
"People ask me who the toughest guy I have faced and I usually don’t know or I can’t really think of him. But that’s the first time I got put in that spot like that, whatever he threw, the slider, the cutter, back foot and throwing 100-plus and then he got the slider that got me all messed up," the 22-year-old admitted. "That was the toughest. It’s not normal."
It wasn't normal.
The first at-bat started with a swing and a miss on a 99 mph fastball and ended with another whiff, this one coming via Luzardo's changeup. The next three at-bats came against different Phillies pitchers, but led to the same results - strikeouts. For the first time in Campbell's life he had fanned four times in a single game.
In the first few days of camp, the Red Sox had been pretending to slow-play the advancement of Campbell, who a year before was nowhere near the major leaguers in and around the spring training complex, living life as a seemingly innocuous minor-leaguer. Sure, he had emerged as one of the top prospects in Major League Baseball, but to start with the 22-year-old was going to take grounders with the second group, with Vaughn Grissom and David Hamilton getting first crack at winning the second base job.
But there was undoubtedly expectation throughout the Red Sox' decision-makers that Campbell would be forcing himself into the starting mix, with Alex Cora routinely taking the time to impart the kind of middle infield wisdom Sandy Alomar Sr. passed on to him 25 years earlier.
The plan wasn't seemingly taking root as Campbell or the Red Sox had hoped. The 2023 fourth-round pick was pressing, not managing to ignore the early-camp buzz. He was chasing pitches. He was swinging and missing. And he wasn't playing with the refreshing aw-shucks joy that could be found throughout his meteoric rise in 2024.
So, after striking out for a third time in that game against Philadelphia - making him 0-for-10 with half of the outs coming via punch-outs - Cora summoned Campbell over. The two sat just outside the visitors' dugout and had an in-game heart-to-heart. It was hard not to notice.
"We were talking about dinner plans. It wasn’t baseball related," the manager said immediately after the game when asked about the get-together, going on to prioritize the 25 pitches seen by the right-handed hitter that day.
Four days later, the story finally changed. The truth was coming out.
On March 3 in Sarasota, Campbell finally found his first Grapefruit League, an opposite field single against Baltimore's Tomoyuki Sugano. The Red Sox' dugout erupted, with hitting coach Pete Fatse pumping his fist and Cora clapping intently. Suddenly, those first 12 awkward spring training at-bats were starting to be put in the rearview mirror a bit.
The guy who was drifting away from the second base competition was about to dive back in.
"Thank God, bro. Everybody (was celebrating)," said Cora when reflecting on Campbell's first hit. "It’s an example that we’re still developing. He’s still a kid. He hasn’t played that much. The other day in Philly he was a little frustrated. We actually didn’t talk about lunch. We talked about controlling the strike zone. What’s your strength? Yeah, he can hit it hard but he dominates the strike zone. He had an eight-pitch at-bat but he should have walked twice that game. You want to swing out of a slump and you want to get your hits but we’re in the business of getting on base. He knows it."
Now it was time for Campbell to start taking the step everyone with the Red Sox had been waiting for. The earnest infielder was starting to be reminded who he was.
Fatse showed him images of how pronounced his front leg had become when dipping rearing back before each pitch, a dramatic departure for the controlled lower half of last season. It was one of the reasons Campbell had become so unbalanced, a reality that even his college teammate and Rays prospect Chandler Simpson had pointed out to Campbell when the two crossed paths during their Southwest Florida showdowns.
And while the player was finally rediscovering himself, his manager had also started to get a better grip on what all the hype was about. The swing decisions were reminding Cora of a young George Springer. The other on-field mannerisms? That was a bit more complicated.
"Honesty, the first five days I was like who is he as a b baseball player. I was like, it’s (Celtics forward) Jaylen Brown. It’s different," Cora noted. "The way they run. He’s not smooth, but it’s different and he gets it done."
Even the manner in which Campbell best received instruction was finally being unveiled. The get-to-know-you first few weeks were starting to bear fruit.
"Very visual. For him, you show him and he will do it," Cora said of his new middle-infield student. "If you talk about it he will hesitate a little bit. But as soon as he sees it he will get it."
By the time the day after the Red Sox' off day - March 11 - rolled around, the organization was ready to dive head-first in when it came to giving Campbell a chance to win the second base job. For the next 1 1/2 weeks, he would be routinely be getting the start at the position, with the notion that third baseman Alex Bregman might ultimately find his way to that side of the infield coming to a screeching halt.
Everything was starting to come together.
Pitches were being taken. Line-drives were being hit. And even when Cora had bemoaned on the morning of St. Patrick's Day that Campbell hadn't gotten nearly enough balls hit his way at second base, the infielder solved that problem a few hours later. Five successful plays later (complete with fist bumps and smiles), a bunch of final boxes had been checked.
It took a month, but the real Kristian Campbell had arrived.
"Camp was a different opportunity for each of (the Red Sox top prospects) just because of the positions that they played, the experience, the age, all of the expectations. All of those things," Breslow said. "But if you see any of those guys work, whether that’s defensive work before the game or in the cages, you know this could work."
Sure, there might not have been that one fork-in-the-road instance Campbell will be pointing to when preparing for his first big league game at Globe Life Field. But there will always be that Luzardo moment to lean on ... along with many more to come.
"Once you see it and get used to it, it helps you get ready for the season," he said of those pitches in Clearwater. "Even I might struggle for the first time off guys like that, once you see him there aren’t many who will be better than that."