No. 5 prospect gets 1st taste of Fenway after being honored by Red Sox

BOSTON -- With the season winding down for the Red Sox, a key piece of the future strolled into Fenway Park for the first time on Friday.

That would be Kristian Campbell, one of the fastest-rising prospects to come through Boston’s farm system in years. The right-handed-hitting infielder/outfielder ranked No. 30 among Boston prospects in MLB Pipeline’s preseason rankings. By midseason, he was No. 5.

Campbell, 22, was recognized in pregame ceremonies as the organization’s Offensive Player of the Year prior to Friday’s 2-1 loss to the Rays.

This, from a player who the Red Sox selected out of Georgia Tech in the fourth round of the 2023 MLB Draft as a compensation pick for losing Xander Bogaerts in free agency.

Consider this: Campbell played his first 40 games of the season at High-A Salem, spent 56 games at Double-A Portland and finished with 19 games at Triple-A Worcester.

It goes without saying that there is only one more level Campbell can be promoted to.

“Super close,” Campbell said of Fenway Park. “It's not far at all from Worcester, so it's pretty close, for sure.”

Campbell wasn’t being cocky. He simply misunderstood the question over the noise on the field, which was this: How close is he from being able to call Fenway Park his home office?

“Oh, yeah, I just keep putting in the work to be ready,” Campbell said. “That’s all I can really do at the end of the day, keep putting in the work to be ready for this level.”

Work is something Campbell loves, which explains his swift ascension through the farm system this season.

In 115 games across the three levels, he had a line of .330/.439/.558 with 32 doubles, three triples, 20 homers and 77 RBIs.

The one part of that stat line that surprised Campbell the most? The homers. In his 68 at-bats in his first pro season last year, he went deep just once. He hit four home runs in his final season at Georgia Tech.

“I [mainly] hit a couple a season, but hitting 20 this year, I never thought I’d have done that,” said Campbell. “But it's the work I put in, and the work that the player development team has for me and what we work on every day [that] kind of gets me prepared for that. So I'm not really surprised. The work I put in definitely showed this year.”

Campbell gets animated when he thinks about the drills that helped him get to this point.

“My intent this year was really, ‘Just don't hit a ground ball,’” said Campbell. “Hit everything in the air and as hard as possible. And that was the goal when I was in Fort Myers, just put the ball in play as hard as possible to all parts of the field and make good swing decisions.

“So whenever I decide to swing at a good pitch, or whenever I do decide to swing, it was a good pitch to swing at. And you put a combination of those things together and good things happen.”

With Campbell, the bat is just half the story. His glove travels, which should make him an invaluable commodity going forward.

After focusing on second base at Georgia Tech, Campbell has played every position but catcher and first base during his brief time in Boston’s farm system.

“I feel pretty comfortable everywhere on the field,” Campbell said. “I'm primarily a middle infielder and I feel really comfortable at second base, because that’s been my job the [previous] couple of years. So this year I moved all over the place, and I felt really good, especially with the work we put in before the games and everything. I’m pretty comfortable wherever they want me to play.”

As much progress as Campbell has made this season, the Red Sox are careful to say the development is not complete.

“I think at this point, for him, it's just honing in on some of the skills,” said Red Sox director of player development Brian Abraham. “I think whenever you get to Triple-A, whenever you get to the upper levels, it's refining some of the things that he’s doing.

“Whether it be playing more consistently at one position or improving his swing decisions, continuing to hit the ball pull side in the air. Just a lot of things that he does really well, making them even better and doing it more consistently. So I think those things will allow him to excel even more.”