At the start of spring training, it felt as if Kristian Campbell, one of the top prospects in all of baseball, had a legitimate shot to open the regular season as the Boston Red Sox regular second baseman. This would be a risky decision from Boston's perspective as Campbell has just 19 games of Triple-A experience under his belt and has yet to see a pitch in an MLB game that counts, but his talent and potential are hard to overlook.
Fast forward to the last couple of days of spring training, and Campbell is still squarely in the mix to win the job. His odds improved ever so slightly with the Red Sox optioning Vaughn Grissom down to the minor leagues earlier in the week, but there are two more players in the mix according to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe.
Marcelo Mayer, another top prospect, has opened some eyes this spring, and he's in the running. While Mayer is not rated as highly as Campbell by MLB Pipeline, he's one of the better infield prospects in the sport, so Red Sox fans wouldn't be upset at all if he made the team over Campbell.
The third option is one that most Red Sox fans probably won't be thrilled with. David Hamilton appeared in 98 games for the Red Sox last season, and he could very well end up as the team's starter at the keystone to begin the 2025 campaign.
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David Hamilton could crush Red Sox fans' dreams by winning 2B job
It isn't hard to see why the Red Sox would go this route. As mentioned above, Campbell has just 19 games of Triple-A experience and has yet to appear in an MLB contest. Mayer has even less experience, as he hasn't even cracked the Triple-A level yet. Obviously, both of these players are expected to be key contributors in Beantown long-term, but that doesn't mean that they have to be in the lineup on Opening Day.
Hamilton, on the other hand, played a good amount last season for the Red Sox, and even appeared in 15 MLB games in 2023. The Red Sox know exactly what they get with him. His bat isn't extraordinary, but his glove at second base is superb, and he offers high-end speed with elite base-stealing ability. Despite appearing in fewer than 100 games and posting a subpar .303 OBP, Hamilton stole 33 bases, good for seventh in the AL and tied for 11th in the majors.
Adding onto his already decent MLB success, Hamilton has swung a good bat this spring, as evidenced by his .817 OPS. Campbell, on the other hand, has a .517 OPS this spring. How much sense does it make to roster a player with less experience who hasn't performed as well in spring training as one he's in competition with?
Campbell needed to perform better than he has to win the job. Hamilton having the experience he does while also having a better spring than Campbell, makes the decision to hand the reins to him to start the year one that's tough to argue against, as much as Red Sox fans would love to try to.