Prospect Campbell has Red Sox in his sights

This story was excerpted from Ian Browne's Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

BOSTON -- For Kristian Campbell, the chance to hang around Fenway Park last week -- first for the team’s Fenway Fest event and then for the Rookie Development Program -- only increased his hunger to make it his permanent office.

“I definitely feel like it feels a lot closer,” said Campbell. “This was my second time in Boston, so I think being here definitely makes it feel a little closer. And it feels like it's actually right around the corner.”

Campbell is one of the three top prospects that Red Sox fans are in a frenzy over.

Though he is No. 3 on the club’s Top 30 Prospects list as ranked by MLB Pipeline behind Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer, Campbell (No. 10 overall in MLB) seems to have the inside track on being the first to get to the Major Leagues.

There are two reasons for this.

The first is that Campbell wields a right-handed bat and the Red Sox need more of those.

The second is that he can play all over the diamond, giving him a wider path. Most relevant is the fact Campbell can play second base, where the Red Sox don’t have a surefire starter at this point.

Next month, Campbell will go to Spring Training on a mission to be on the team’s Opening Day roster in Texas on March 27.

“For sure,” said Campbell. “That's the goal. That's been the goal the whole time. To compete, I love competing. That's the point of baseball is to compete. So I think that's one of my goals for sure.”

At this point, the top candidates to start at second base for the Red Sox are Vaughn Grissom and Campbell.

Grissom had a tough first season in Boston after being acquired from the Braves for Chris Sale. He came to camp with leg issues, tried to play catch-up and had a hard time producing when he got the opportunity. The Red Sox think Grissom has a chance to rebound this season, and he’ll get a chance to prove it starting in the spring.

But he could face fierce competition from the highly athletic Campbell, who added power to his game in a breakout 2024 season in which he went from High-A Greenville to Double-A Portland and finally to Triple-A Worcester, banging the baseball at each stop.

“Kristian continues to improve, continues to get better, get stronger, hit the baseball hard, play good defense,” said Red Sox director of player development Brian Abraham. “The versatility that he provides on the defensive side has been really great. So we're excited to see what he continues to do and what he can continue to improve upon. And I know for him, challenging himself to get better every day is a big piece of what he believes in.”

Last year at this time, Campbell was hardly on the radar, checking in at No. 30 on Pipeline’s Top 30 list for the Red Sox.

With his first invite to Spring Training all but inevitable, Campbell will try to take another sizable step forward. But he vows not to put pressure on himself while doing so.

“It's really just trying to keep everything as simple as possible and try not to overthink it,” Campbell said. “Baseball is going to be baseball, there are a lot of ups and downs. But if you stay right in the middle and stay narrow-headed, everything will be fine.”