News broke a few hours before first pitch on Friday that the Red Sox will be giving Kristian Campbell reps at first base. The position has been a point of contention for the Red Sox and their fans since Triston Casas went down with a season-ending ruptured patella tendon earlier this month.
Major drama ensued after the Red Sox asked Rafael Devers to shift across the diamond, which he vetoed and then revealed a lot of information to the media.
Since the Casas injury, three players have seen time at first: Romy Gonzalez, Abraham Toro, and Nick Sogard, though none are long-term answers. Now Alex Cora is trying rookie second baseman Kristian Campbell there. He is only seeing grounders there at the moment, just as a tryout before they get more serious.
The move comes at a time when the Sox are trying to find everyday positions for Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer. Taking Campbell off second will open up the position for Mayer.
Some Red Sox fans are against the idea of moving Campbell to first. Campbell is an uber-athletic 22-year-old. In the short time the Red Sox had him in the organization, they've played him all over the diamond because they believed his athleticism would carry him anywhere on the field. They trusted him enough to play center field in Fenway, one of the hardest positions to play in MLB. The one position he hasn't played, even in college, is first base.
Campbell is also slumping at the moment. In his last 11 games he's hitting just .128 with a .440 OPS. He is still adjusting to the majors, as all rookies do, but trying to get him to learn a position that's completely foreign to him only complicates the whole ordeal, especially in the middle of his rookie season.
Not only that, but Mayer is supposed to be the shortstop of the future, Now they are trying to get him to learn a new position mid-season? Some scouts speculated he would move off of short in the majors, though third seemed like the consensus switch for him.
Not only does moving Mayer off short force him to learn a new position on the fly, it keeps Trevor Story entrenched as a starter, which isn't helpful. He currently ranks in the eighth percentile in Outs Above Average (-3), and his arm strength is only sitting in the 48th percentile.
Mayer is killing the ball down in the minors (.828 OPS with 14 extra-base hits), and adding his bat to the lineup isn't a bad idea. But with the way Story has been playing recently, he doesn't deserve to keep his spot, so a better solution would be to just call Mayer up to play short. That way, they can keep Campbell at second and find a proven veteran to play first.
The Red Sox are trying everything they can to fill the void at first. Moving Campbell there is a lateral step at best. Keep the young, athletic player off the least athletic position on the diamond, and keep the shortstop of the future at shortstop.