The Boston Red Sox seriously need to stop messing with Kristian Campbell's development. Last year, Boston overburdened Campbell by constantly changing his defensive assignment, forcing him to learn new positions on the fly.
This silly and unfortunate lesson plan for Campbell was a reflection of Boston's changing roster needs, but it had the ugly consequence of throwing Campbell completely out of whack at the plate. After a torrid start to his MLB career, he turned ice cold in the batter's box and was demoted to Triple-A in June.
Now, a new update from Alex Cora about Campbell's 2026 plan reveals that the Red Sox obviously ignored all of the lessons from their handling of Campbell last season. Boston is reportedly adding third base to Campbell's growing list of defensive assignments.
First, Campbell was a second baseman. Then he was an outfielder. Then he was a first baseman. Then an outfielder again. Now, this?
The Red Sox are beginning third base work with Kristian Campbell
Comments from Craig Breslow this offseason suggested that Boston had finally stopped screwing around with Campbell's development and was committing to him as an outfielder moving forward. At last! However, Cora threw all of that good news out the window with his remarks on February 10.
“He’s mostly going to play outfield, but we cannot forget about the infield part of it," Cora told perplexed reporters.
Campbell's "primary" work this spring will be in the outfield, but he will also reportedly continue work at second base and third base with infield coach Jose Flores, per Cora. Why don't we also have him get some work in at catcher, and even see if he can pitch?
Seriously, though, all of this needs to stop. Boston needs to pick a position for Campbell, or at least narrow it down to two positions, and go from there. The sooner the Red Sox have him narrowing his focus defensively, the sooner he'll be ready to contribute again at the big-league level with his bat.
Campbell has a right to be frustrated with all of the changes to his program within the last calendar year. It's hard enough to adjust to the next level when your assignment is relatively simple.
Boston has overcomplicated Campbell's development in a highly regrettable way. This season was supposed to be the start of making up for that, not the continuation of making it even worse.
Give the kid some momentum at one spot on the diamond defensively, and the rest will take care of itself. He's a gifted hitter who could really help the Red Sox from the right side of the plate if he gets his mojo back, but Boston's doing plenty to prevent that from happening.