Kristian Campbell and the conversation with Trevor Story that turned around his spring

New York Times

04-04-2025

Halfway through this spring, Boston Red Sox top infield prospect Kristian Campbell was struggling.
He'd had a lot thrown at him early in camp, entering the spring as the leading candidate to win the starting second base job despite being drafted just 20 months prior.
Over lunch one day at JetBlue Park, Campbell turned to the man who now catches his feeds on double plays, and veteran shortstop Trevor Story gave him advice that helped Campbell turn around his spring.
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'I just reminded him, just be yourself, that's all he wanted to do,' Story said. 'The conversation was mainly about just him going out there and letting it rip. Like if you need to go out there and waggle your bat, do it. You don't need to try to be anyone else or try to fit into this team or do anything other than just be yourself.'
The 22-year-old Campbell was coming off a whirlwind 2024, in which he'd rocketed through three minor-league levels, finishing in Triple A. He was named The Athletic's Prospect of the Year and Baseball America's Minor Leaguer of the Year. He entered the 2025 season as The Athletic's No. 9 prospect in baseball despite not being a top-30 prospect in the Red Sox system to start 2024.
And yet for a majority of his first big-league camp, Campbell struggled. He went hitless in his first five games, going 0-for-12 with eight strikeouts, before finally knocking a single to right on March 3. Even after that, the hits were few and far between.
As the weeks ticked by, the Red Sox braintrust started to wonder whether it should thrust Campbell into the big-league spotlight on Opening Day. Should Alex Bregman shift to second instead? Was David Hamilton a safer option at the spot?
'We had conversations about (Campbell), like, 'What should we do?'' manager Alex Cora said recently.
It's not uncommon for young players in their first big-league camp to need time to adapt, but time was running short and the Red Sox needed to make a decision.
'If you go to YouTube, like I did in January, there's a Kristian Campbell highlight reel,' Cora said. 'Every home run on fastballs were straight center or right-center; every home run to pull-side was soft stuff in the zone. During spring training, I'm like, where is this? Is this just a highlight reel or is this who he is?'
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Spring struggles were nothing new for Campbell, who started slowly in 2024 before his breakout season, in which he hit .330 with a .997 OPS in 115 games, finishing the year in Triple-A.
'Nobody was watching (last year), so nobody knew I was struggling on the back fields,' he said.
The struggles this spring were highly visible, however. Through his first 30 at-bats, he collected just four singles and a double, striking out 13 times. Having battled timing issues in the spring before, Campbell remained confident he would find his swing, but he was still frustrated by not producing results with an Opening Day spot on the line. He needed to show he was ready for any everyday job in the majors.
Compounding his issues at the plate was the time he was spending focusing on his defense. He was flipping between second base and the outfield, as he'd done in 2024, with his defensive versatility another asset the Red Sox coveted.
Every day, Campbell was part of a defensive clinic on the back fields. Cora, a former infielder, joined infield instructor Jose Flores, as well as Bregman and Story, to give Campbell pointers on refining his mechanics, receiving the ball smoother and turning double plays quicker.
Campbell was making incremental progress, but he was trying to implement a lot in a short amount of time. Looming in the background of all of this were contract negotiations with the Red Sox front office.
Finally, midway through camp after another frustrating day, Campbell found himself in the lunchroom at JetBlue Park with Story and decided to pick the veteran's brain.
'I just asked him what he did his first major-league spring training,' Campbell recalled. 'I definitely put too much pressure on myself in the beginning. It was a combination of pressure and finding my rhythm.
'Trying to find it all together is tough sometimes, that's what camp is for, he was saying, to get your rhythm and timing,' Campbell said. 'I just asked him his experiences, if he ever had a tough camp before or like what he's done in the past to get out of a tough break.'
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Getting perspective from a player like Story helped Campbell.
'He wanted to feel like he'd earned the job,' Story said.
'He was like, man, I know what I can do, it's not showing up. We talked about there's no room for hesitation in this game. You got to go out there and be your full self and let it rip the way you know how.'
Campbell laying out to make the play! pic.twitter.com/wx0VmVaVlp
— Red Sox Player Development (@RedSoxPlayerDev) March 17, 2025
Around the same time as his conversation with Story, Campbell participated in the Spring Breakout showcase game with Boston's other top prospects, Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony. It was a loose atmosphere, outside the pressures of big-league camp.
On a 1-0 pitch in the third inning, Campbell hammered a ball to right-center that went over the wall, breaking a scoreless tie. Campbell's Spring Breakout homer didn't count toward his official spring stats, but it marked his first homer of the spring and he finally felt the swing he knew coming back.
'Hitting that home run was like, 'OK, perfect, I'm back in my alley,'' Campbell said. 'And then it kind of went from there, finding rhythm and finding what I wanted to do with my swing, finding that feel over and over and over again.'
After weeks of repetitions at the plate and in the field coupled with the conversation with Story, Campbell started to relax. That in turn helped him produce.
Over the final week of camp, he started to play with more freedom like Story had suggested. He not only was taking better at-bats, but he started making eye-popping, diving plays in the infield and throwing runners out from the outfield. He worried less about overdoing it as a rookie.
That's not getting by KC! pic.twitter.com/eRJP4Npt1N
— Red Sox Player Development (@RedSoxPlayerDev) March 22, 2025
'I'm not saying (our conversation) is what turned him around or got him going,' Story said.
'I think for him that resonated with him. You could see a little bit of a different fire after. He was diving, making amazing plays, having good at-bats, feeling like he was competing like himself out there.'
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The penultimate day of camp was when Cora finally saw the hitter he'd watched in the YouTube clips. The Red Sox were facing the Rays in Port Charlotte, Fla., at the same park where the Spring Breakout game had taken place. In his second at-bat against All-Star pitcher Shane McClanahan, Campbell fell behind in the count with two strikes, but he managed to line out at 107 mph to center field.
'That's who he is,' Cora said. 'He's a hitter that controls the strike zone, makes good swing decisions, and he drives the ball hard to right-center.'
Two at-bats later, Campbell crushed his first homer in big-league camp.
'I was like, there it is, you're behind in the count, you're seeing the baseball and you hammered the ball to center,' hitting coach Pete Fatse said. 'That's your line. Now we can work off of something.'
Oppo for Campbell! pic.twitter.com/5BgiejmiA8
— Red Sox Player Development (@RedSoxPlayerDev) March 22, 2025
Campbell always maintained confidence he'd find his footing and knew it was a matter of time. All of that has been validated over the first seven games of the season. He's gone 10-for-24 (.417) with four doubles, two homers, four walks and five strikeouts, and in the process he signed an eight-year, $60 million contact extension.
On Opening Day in Texas, Campbell reflected on how far he'd come, not just over the course of the spring, but over the past two decades.
'It's not really about the last six weeks,' he said of making his big-league debut. 'It's more about the last 15 years.'
Campbell always had the talent inside of him, but his conversation with Story brought it to the surface.
'You still got to go out there and do the thing,' Campbell said. 'But being able to open up and talk to someone about it definitely helps a lot.'
(Photo of Kristian Campbell: Greg Fiume / Getty Images)