Scouting reports praised Red Sox prospect Kristian Campbell’s “elite contact rate” coming out of Georgia Tech where he had 12 more walks (29) than strikeouts (17) in 217 plate appearances in 2023. Baseball America wrote that Campbell “posted a 90% overall contact rate (last) spring with a tremendous in-zone contact rate of 94%.”
The 21-year-old right-handed hitter has shown another dimension to his game here in his first full season of pro ball this year — power.
Campbell, who the Red Sox drafted in the fourth round (132nd overall) last July, is third among all Boston minor leaguers in extra-base hits with 22.
The center fielder/second baseman received a promotion to Double-A Portland on Tuesday after batting .306 with a .418 on-base percentage, .558 slugging percentage, .976 OPS, eight homers, 13 doubles, 25 RBIs and 29 runs in 40 games (177 plate appearances) at High-A Greenville. He went 2-for-4 with a triple, walk and run in his Portland debut Tuesday.
“The most impressive part with Kristian is the combination of just bat speed and power along with his swing decisions,” Greenville hitting coach JP Fasone said by phone Sunday. “He makes really good decisions at the plate and then has the bat speed to bail himself out when he doesn’t and hit some balls over the fence that maybe he’s not perfectly on time with.”
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MassLive ranked Campbell the Red Sox’ No. 25 prospect entering 2024. Matthew Lugo (26 extra-base hits) and Marcelo Mayer (25) are the only Red Sox minor leaguers with more extra-base hits than Campbell. Campbell is tied for third in homers behind Lugo (11) and Niko Kavadas (10).
“I don’t think we really expected it (this much power) but I think we saw it was in there for sure,” Fasone said. “Obviously he’s very athletic. He did a good job in the offseason of getting stronger. When he came back in spring training, he was definitely hitting balls a lot harder and swinging a lot faster. That just continued to improve through spring training. So I wouldn’t say we are necessarily surprised. We kind of knew it was in there. It was just — when is it going to come out?”
Campbell, who is listed at 6-foot-3, 191 pounds, worked on increasing his bat speed during the offseason.
“He came into the organization with some,” Fasone said. “Obviously a big, strong kid but not necessarily something he had really focused on. I know this offseason a big focus for him was to swing faster and get the ball in the air more. The numbers show you he’s doing that pretty well.”
With more power has also has come more strikeouts (decreased contact rate). He continues to walk at a high rate (14.8%) but his strikeout percentage (25.8%) has jumped.
“I think that was part of the conversation with him is that we’re going to try to hit the ball in the air more and kind of look to do some more damage than he has in the past,” Fasone said. “That might come with striking out a little bit more. But because his strikeouts were so low, he had a little bit of room to give and still be within league average or below that. So I think that was part of the conversation with him and I think we expected them to be a little bit higher. But we’ll kind of trade the production for a few more strikeouts.”
Campbell annihilated left-handed pitchers at Greenville, going 14-for-34 (.412 batting average) with a .488 on-base percentage, .735 slugging percentage, 1.223 OPS, two homers and five doubles. He also hit quite well vs. right-handed hurlers, going 31-for-113 (.274) with a .397 on-base percentage, .504 slugging percentage, .901 OPS, six homers and eight doubles.
“I think the thing with righties is that he just does such a good job being disciplined with sliders and curveballs moving away from him and he trusts his hands to get to pitches inside,” Fasone said. “So that kind of leaves him the opportunity to let those pitches get a little bit deeper and see them a little bit longer. I think being able to kind of trust his hands and trust his eyes at the bottom of the zone is big for him.”
Campbell posted only a .216/.344/.412/.756 line and six extra-base hits in 61 plate appearances during April. But he enjoyed a monster May, posting a .371/.467/.663/1.130 line and 14 extra-base hits in 136 plate appearances.
“I think definitely some bad luck (in April),” Fasone said. “But getting used to hitting balls in the air more. I think it’s just a different bat path. And it took him a little bit for his brain to figure out where his bat was. It’s just in a different place than he’s been used to it being. It was just kind of a matter of time. The conversation with him was just keep making good decisions, just keep swinging at the right pitches and it will come.”
Campbell prepares well for opposing pitchers.
“I think for him it’s less about looking for a pitch in a certain area. He’s pretty good at understanding what the pitcher is trying to do and what he’s trying to throw to him,” Fasone said. “So a little bit of guessing pitches but he’s also got a really good eye.”
Boston selected Campbell with the compensation draft pick it received for losing Xander Bogaerts to the Padres in free agency. He’s the second member of the Red Sox’ 2023 draft class to reach Double A. First-round selection Kyle Teel made it there last September.
Campbell, who was drafted as a shortstop, has made 18 starts at second base, 13 starts in center field and one start at third base this year. He played both corner outfield positions last year.
“I think the nice part with him is that he’s just very curious,” Fasone said. “He understands how he works and how he goes about things. He’s thoughtfully asking questions about what pitchers are doing, why he’s hitting the ball a certain way, how he can continue to improve or make adjustments. I think he’s just constantly thinking, which sometimes is good and sometimes is bad. But it’s the curiosity along with the maturity that I think makes him special.”
