Latest news with #ALRookieoftheMonth
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Athletics' Wilson named AL Rookie of the Month after magnificent May
Athletics' Wilson named AL Rookie of the Month after magnificent May originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area A memorable May just got even better for Jacob Wilson. The Athletics' sterling young shortstop earned AL Rookie of the Month honors Tuesday after putting up stellar numbers over the last few weeks. Advertisement In May, Wilson posted .368/.437/.538 splits at the plate, along with four home runs, six doubles and 16 RBI. He also walked 11 times compared to just eight strikeouts over 27 games. Before Tuesday's game against the Minnesota Twins, Athletics manager Mark Kotsay praised Wilson's continuing development. 'The month was special,' Kotsay told reporters. 'He's been a big, big part of the offense and continues to just use his 'magic wand,' as we want to call it. The bat-to-ball skill is exceptional. 'He's beating all expectations. I think the growth from a shortstop that we saw from last year to this year is noticeable. I think he's making more plays than he did last season, and I think he'll continue to get better.' Advertisement In addition to his play overall, the No. 6 overall pick from the 2023 MLB Draft created some unforgettable moments over the past month as well. Wilson recorded the third walk-off hit of his young career on May 6 with an 11th-inning single to beat the Seattle Mariners. Needing only 62 career games, that made him the second-fastest player since at least 1969 to record three walk-off hits, per MLB's Sarah Langs. A week later, the Los Angeles native had a dominant homecoming to Dodger Stadium on May 13. In an 11-1 drubbing of the Dodgers, Wilson knocked out a pair of two-run home runs and finished with four hits. Wilson, who entered 2024 as the top prospect in the Athletics' organization, has vaulted himself into the frontrunner for the 2025 AL Rookie of the Year race. And though the Green and Gold have struggled lately, Wilson can continue to cement himself as a centerpiece of the team's young core if his May numbers continue throughout the summer.
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Would struggling Red Sox rookie Kristian Campbell benefit from a reset in the minors?
There are two questions related to that objective. First, is improvement/development for Campbell more easily accomplished in the big leagues or minors? Secondly, how much latitude can the Sox afford Campbell given the broader struggles of the team? First, the context: After he won AL Rookie of the Month honors in April, Campbell has been overmatched. He entered Tuesday's game against the Angels — the second straight in which he was batting ninth — hitting .133/.179/.167 with a 31 percent strikeout rate and 5 percent walk rate since May 4. He'd gone 16 straight games without an extra-base hit. The worst stretch of his baseball life is occurring under a microscope. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Obviously, it's Boston. Everybody expects us to win every night. That's what we expect of ourselves,' said hitting coach Pete Fatse. 'So there's, at times, an added pressure element.' Advertisement Some young players — Dustin Pedroia in 2007, Gunnar Henderson in 2023, among others — who struggle offensively while acclimating to big league pitching provide a floor of solid defensive value. But Campbell has been a below-average defensive second baseman while adjusting to the speed of the game in the big leagues. Meanwhile, the Sox are no longer priming him as a potential first base solution. Advertisement 'We've got to get the offensive part of it going,' said Cora. 'We have to.' Still, there's not a set template about how to proceed, even with a player like Campbell whose meteoric ascent through the minors gave him a limited professional foundation. In July 2011, Mike Trout reached the big leagues as a 19-year-old, roughly two years removed from high school. He struggled for three weeks (.163/.213/.279), then got sent back down to Double A (!) for three weeks to reset. He returned to the big leagues for the final six weeks of the season and hit .250/.318/.450. With hindsight, Trout believes the return to the minors after his initial big league struggle proved transformative. 'At the time, it was frustrating because you come up here, you want to stay. But I think it helped me, knowing what to expect the next time I got the call, how to prepare myself, and how to make adjustments the second time I was called up,' Trout said on Tuesday. 'The biggest thing is just slowing everything down. You come up and you want to do so much, so fast, and make such a big impression, as opposed to [playing the same way] as how you got there. That's one big thing I learned.' Trout — who opened 2012 in Triple A before quickly establishing himself as the best player in baseball that year — believes he wouldn't have gained his footing in the big leagues as quickly without the up-and-down experience. Advertisement Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman had a different experience when he reached the big leagues in 2016, just over a year after the Astros made him the No. 2 overall pick out of LSU in the 2015 draft. Bregman's much-anticipated debut initially fell flat. He went 0 for 17 and 1 for 34 at the start of his big league career. But the Astros allowed Bregman to work through that slow start. He responded by hitting .311/.359/.569 over the remainder of the season, emerging as a fixture on a team that contended for titles. He expects the same from Campbell. 'We need him up here in order to win games,' said Bregman. '[Campbell] is the same situation [as Bregman]. I was going through it and just continuing to play every day. That confidence that [Astros manager A.J. Hinch] showed in me when I was going through it, and the same confidence that [Cora] is showing in him, it'll pay off. 'He's one of the best players in this organization,' Bregman added. 'He's going to be a very, very good player in this league for a long, long time. Stuff happens. You're going to go through little slumps here and there. And once you learn how to dig yourself out of them, they become shorter and shorter. He's going to be a multi-time All-Star in this league and dominate the league. He's going to get it figured out.' The Trout and Bregman cases offer reminders both of the tremendous difficulty that even standout prospects face when they get to the big leagues, and that there's not a one-size-fits-all strategy for navigating the situation. Everyone around the Sox feels Campbell is committed to the most important element for escaping a slump: Work. That said, while the willingness to bulldoze ahead in the big leagues is the right answer for some players, that's not true of everyone. Advertisement 'Everybody's a different case,' said Fatse. 'I think that's where you've got to meet guys where they're at.' For now, the Sox are trying to do that in the big leagues. But if Campbell's struggles persist, it remains unsettled whether that will remain the case. Alex Speier can be reached at
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Sport
- Boston Globe
Who's on first? It appears it won't be Kristian Campbell in the near future
'It's nothing we're planning on doing [in games] now,' Cora said of having Campbell play first. Campbell, who won AL Rookie of the Month honors in April after hitting .301/.407/.495, entered Monday hitting .140/.187/.174 since the beginning of May. Was there any chance Campbell's introduction to a new position contributed to his struggles? Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Hopefully. I hope [having him not work at first base] works today. I'll be like, 'Hey, blame me [for his struggles],' ' said Cora. 'But I think there's more than that.' Advertisement Cora pointed to the fact that Campbell's offensive struggles started before he began doing pregame work at first base on May 16. His groundball rate spiked and his walk rate cratered in early May. But Cora characterized Campbell's struggles as normal rookie growing pains. 'We still believe in the swing, we still believe in the character,' said Cora. 'Obviously, we're going to go through stretches like this. And I lived it before with Jarren [ Duran ], with [ Triston ] Casas , with Dustin Pedroia . … So [we] just try to help him out and keep the confidence up. Just remind him that he's still a good player, regardless of what the numbers said so far this season.' Advertisement Gonzalez, who was hitting .308/.362/.423 when he landed on the injured list, was in line to serve as the primary Sox first baseman when Triston Casas sustained his season-ending injury. But now the allocation of playing time has been redrawn, with Toro (.310/.310/.534) expected to get most of the starts against righties. Gonzalez was simply happy to return rather than bemoaning a missed chance at playing time. 'I'm obviously super ecstatic to be back with the boys, just being able to contribute in any way,' Gonzalez said. With Gonzalez activated, Nate Eaton was optioned to Triple A Worcester. Devers takes grounders For the first time in a month, Rafael Devers was seen taking pregame infield grounders. He did so on the left side of the infield. Anything to that? 'I didn't know,' Cora said of his designated hitter donning a glove Jansen returns Kenley Jansen , who had 56 saves for the Red Sox from 2023-24, returned to Fenway with the Angels. 'I got the chance to put [a Sox] uniform on for two years. These fans are awesome; that's one thing I can I say.' Jansen said. 'Yeah, we didn't go to the playoffs, but I had a blast to play here.' Jansen, 37, hopes to play another few seasons. 'My goal is to get to 40,' he said. 'It's a game that I love and I still love doing it.' … The Angels placed third baseman Yoán Moncada (right knee inflammation) and righthander Robert Stephenson (biceps inflammation) on the IL and recalled outfielder Matthew Lugo and lefthander Sam Aldegheri . Advertisement Lugo, 24, was a second-round pick by the Red Sox in 2019. He was one of four prospects traded to the Angels last July for reliever Luis Garcia . 'This was not how I expected to get to Fenway Park for a game, but I'll take it,' said Lugo. Crawford steps up workload Kutter Crawford (right knee) is up to four simulated innings in live batting practice sessions, and is scheduled to begin a minor league rehab assignment this week. He'll be stretched out as a starter, Cora said … Tanner Houck is throwing on flat ground, but there's no timetable for him to throw off a mound. … Masataka Yoshida is now throwing at 75 feet … Sox minor league catcher/first baseman Brooks Brannon was named Minor League Baseball's High-A player of the week after going 11 for 21 with a .524/.524/1.048 line with two homers and six extra-base hits for the Greenville Drive … Monday was Lou Gehrig Day across MLB, with players, managers, coaches, and umpires wearing a '4' decal on their uniforms in an effort to raise awareness and provide research funds to combat ALS. Prior to Monday's game at Fenway, the Red Sox recognized families from across New England affected by the disease. Alex Speier can be reached at
Boston Globe
28-05-2025
- Sport
- Boston Globe
The hopes of preseason Red Sox promise have now sunk into the quicksand of mediocrity
The Red Sox are dying on the hill of sustainability, a place they planted themselves in 2020. The homegrown player strategy underpinning their Coring Twenties blueprint is experiencing the growing pains and fits and starts that come with banking on production from players in-progress. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Instead of a silver bullet of success, the Sox have to bite the bullet by fielding lineups that look more suitable for Triple A than the American League East — rookie Kristian Campbell batting cleanup, as well as journeyman Abraham Toro and fringy big leaguer David Hamilton starting. Advertisement Right now, the Red Sox simply don't have the requisite big-league talent to live up to the lofty expectations they engendered. They look greener than those regrettable new City Connect jerseys. The Sox made bold moves, trading for ace Garrett Crochet and signing third baseman Alex Bregman, now out with a strained quad, to a three-year, $120 million deal. But if you paid close attention, what really defined their plan was pushing Campbell into the Opening Day lineup. Related : Advertisement The farm system graduates the Sox have banked on and boosted the bank accounts of aren't paying enough dividends. In March of 2024, Breslow Bello, who started this season delayed by right shoulder inflammation, hasn't gotten through the fifth inning in his last four starts. Last year, he posted solid numbers (14-8, 4.49 ERA), but his ERA+ was 94, with 100 signifying a league-average pitcher. Starter Brayan Bello is one of several young Red Sox talents who haven't lived up to their lofty billing, nor their enlarged paycheck. Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff Last April, the Sox Campbell rocketed into the Red Sox lineup following a revelatory 2024 in the minors. The Sox inked the first of their Big Three prospects to arrive at Fenway In March and April, the ebullient Campbell batted .301 with four homers and a .902 OPS. Advertisement Rookie second baseman Kristian Campbell, who was named AL Rookie of the Month in April, has crashed back to earth, hitting just .113 in May. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff There are other examples of inchoate players failing to pay off the Sox's rosy internal projections. The poster child for this arrested player development is Triston Casas. The Sox built in no alternative at first base to Casas, incredibly presumptuous considering the mercurial 25-year-old owns but one incredible half of production. Post 2023 All-Star break, he batted .317 with 15 homers and 38 RBI, posting a 1.034 OPS. At the time of his torn patellar tendon, Casas was batting. 182 with a minus-0.9 WAR. He's still more potential and peacocking than proven big league producer — a familiar refrain for the Fenway Forever .500s. It's too early to draw any conclusions about ballyhooed Big Three member Marcelo Mayer, Related : Maybe Roman Anthony, the piece de resistance of Sox prospects, can turn it all around once he gets the call. It's time to break glass in case of emergency with Anthony. But it's heaping immense pressure on a 21-year-old rookie, asking him to save the day and a season that's a flop if the Sox don't land in the playoff field. Advertisement For sure, the young players aren't the only ones flailing. Shortstop Trevor Story is experiencing Odyssean travails, entering Tuesday locked in a 15-for-114 slump with a slash line of .132/.195/.167. Former All-Star Tanner Houck authored two of the It hasn't just been the young players coming up short for the Red Sox this season, as veteran shortstop Trevor Story has struggled mightily at the plate. Barry Chin/Globe Staff Still, the fatal flaw of the Red Sox current organizational philosophy remains blind fealty to the farm system, putting too much stock in and too much responsibility on prospects/emerging big leaguers. Those players have just been handed roles and contracts. Nearly all of them, save for Opening Day hero Wilyer Abreu, are underperforming. It highlights why teams with the resources of the Red Sox usually don't dogmatically pursue this strategy. It's why teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds enter revolving rebuilds where they spin their wheels ad infinitum . The Sox pledged five-plus years ago to mitigate the risk of relying on big-money spending. But relying on young players exposes a team to risk in facets besides finances, chiefly counting on production from unproven and unestablished players. Those players can experience a wide variance of outcomes. They have no established baseline of performance. They're all projection and potential. Right now, the Sox are a team tumbling backwards while waiting for their young players to take those forecasted steps forward. Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Some Things I Think I Think: Red Sox can't rely on Marcelo Mayer or Roman Anthony to save their season
*If I had to guess, I'd bet that either Roman Anthony or Marcelo Mayer — but unlikely both — will be moved to the big leagues no later than early June. As has been noted before, sometimes teams promote top prospects to infuse a slumping team with some much-needed energy. The arrival of a hugely talented young player (or two) can shake the cobwebs from an underachieving team. Advertisement And while there might be some benefit from that, there's also some risk. Such a scenario can place an unfair burden on a rookie. Evaluators are fond of saying that the gap between Triple A and the majors has never been greater. It may be the next logical step up, but it's also a quantum leap. Everything and everyone is better in the big leagues, and the sheer speed of the game can be overwhelming for a young player. The last thing they need is the additional pressure of trying to jumpstart 25 other players who are not living up to expectations. There's never been a brighter spotlight on prospects than now. Fans have access to scouting reports and can watch game highlights on-line. Many Triple A games are available to TV viewers. There's no such thing as flying under the radar anymore, and that goes double for two players as highly regarded as Anthony and Mayer. They shouldn't be viewed as saviors, but they will anyway. Advertisement One need only look at fellow prospect Kristian Campbell for further evidence. After being named AL Rookie of the Month for March/April, he was batting .093 in May heading into Saturday's action. It's fine for the Red Sox to have high expectations for the pair; everyone in the game shares their enthusiasm. There's little doubt that Mayer and Anthony will be impact guy. But maybe not right away. And certainly not so quickly that they can immediately steer the Red Sox' season right. *It's hard to think of an injury to a Boston athlete with as many ramifications as the Achilles injury to Jayson Tatum. Advertisement Set aside the obvious short-term impact — a series loss to the Knicks, the end of the team's title defense and Tatum's absence for all of next season — and there's still more to consider. With Tatum gone for 2025-26, will the ownership change mean a slash in payroll is in the offing? It's hard to think of the Celts as title contenders next season without their best player, so the temptation could be to save money with an eye toward taking a shot in 2026-27. *The NFL gifted the Patriots a pretty easy start to the season. Facing the Raiders, Dolphins, Steelers and Panthers, the Pats have a decent chance of being .500 in the first month. Throw in whatever boost the new coaching staff provides, and the Patriots might actually gain some early-season momentum. Another bonus: the potential exists for the Pats to play 13 of their 17 games at 1 p.m. Eastern, which should help when it comes to maintaining a routine from week to week. Advertisement *If you want to know how Bruins' management and ownership really feel about how long it will take to restore the franchise to contender status, focus on the hiring of the next coach. If they go with a veteran like Peter Laviolette, it will signify that they've deluded themselves into thinking it's a quick fix. Should they go with a young-ish assistant, it will be evidence that they (properly) realize this is going to take a while. *The Red Sox have made a number of inquiries around the game in search of an alternative at first base. Predictably, they've hit the expected roadblocks: teams are either not ready to wave the white flag by trading away valuable assets; or, the asking price is roughly twice what it might be at the July trade deadline. *Do you think Alex Verdugo (three different teams in the last three years; four in the last seven), in a moment of quiet reflection, asks himself: 'I wonder if it might be me?' Advertisement *Every time the NHL looks the other way at a blatant cheap shot — as the league earlier this week when Toronto's Max Domi drilled Florida's Alexsander Barkov from behind and into the boards as time expired — it reinforces the notion that the league is not prioritizing the health and safety of its own players. *Was Brandon Hyde the guy who decided not to upgrade the Baltimore Orioles' starting rotation, extend any of the core of young players or meaningful compete in free agency? Just checking. *When I'm not at the ballpark, I spend a lot of time watching and listening to baseball on TV and radio and the need for some broadcasters to treat with the solemnity of the final out of the World Series can be maddening. We don't need to feel like we just emerged from a Forensics Unit some 300 times per game. Let the game breathe some, please. *I sure hope those upstart owners of the Kansas City Chiefs, the Hunt family — whose most recent net worth is estimated at $24.8 billion — get the public help they're seeking to renovate Arrowhead Stadium. Advertisement *The Bleacher Creatures decided to zing Juan Soto by turning their backs on him as he arrived in right field in the bottom of the first Friday night at Yankee Stadium, and boy, you've got to think that Soto — and his $760 million contract — will be feeling that sick burn for months. More Red Sox coverage Read the original article on MassLive.
