2022 will be the year of Boston Red Sox prospect Christian Koss
2021 was the first season in the Boston Red Sox system for Christian Koss. The shortstop prospect had already enjoyed a strong season in the Colorado Rockies organization in 2019. Now it was time for a new challenge.
Koss enjoyed a phenomenal first year with Boston. The right-handed hitter slashed .271/.325/.451 in 428 at-bats. He roped 18 doubles, seven triples, and 15 home runs. Meanwhile, he drove in 55 runs and scored 65 more – even stealing 10 bases.
Now, Koss isn’t seen as the “elite” prospect. In fact, the 24-year-old isn’t even on the Red Sox top-30 prospects list. However, the upside is absolutely there.
Koss is a good defender. He’s got a solid arm and good footwork. Can make really nice plays and definitely isn’t going to hurt you on the defensive end of the field. That’s not where the money is for Koss though.
It’s the bat where he’s special. And in 2021 he put up great numbers despite not only being in a new organization, but playing at his highest level ever for the entire season. In 2019, Koss was in Rookie Ball. He skipped Low-A and went straight to High-A despite not having a 2020 season.
That’s pretty impressive to put up those numbers with that layoff and jump in levels.
So why will 2022 be a great year for the shortstop? He’s got a chance to start the year in Double-A. If not, he’ll be at High-A with the promotion to Double-A likely coming pretty early in the year. He’s proven he can play, and now that he’s finally had a full season under his belt and gotten back into the swing of things – he’ll start to put it all together.
Koss is that weird type of prospect. He grades around “average” in basically every category. That makes people overlook him. Because he’s not standing out anywhere. But personally I think that’s awesome.
What we know is that Koss can produce in any category. He can get you 15 steals. A .280-plus average is possible, as is 15-20 home runs. There could be lots of doubles, plenty of run production as well. And defensively he won’t hurt you. So there’s no major “weakness” and if he improves at something, it’s suddenly a strong point in his game.
2022 will be a great year for Koss because he’s used to the Red Sox system now. He’s gotten a full year under his belt. We could see some dominance in Double-A and a career-year.
Christian Koss is definitely on my “players to watch” list for the upcoming season. And that’s 100% the best thing that’s happened to him this week. *Checks notes* oh, he got married? Okay, so it’s a close second then.