FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Red Sox are carrying Kristian Campbell on their Opening Day roster mainly because they think he’s their best option at second base to start the 2025 season. But there’s another reason why selecting Campbell for the season opener in Texas may benefit the club down the road.
The “Prospect Promotion Incentive,” introduced by Major League baseball as part of the collective bargaining agreement that went into effect before the 2022 season, rewards teams who carry top prospects from Opening Day on. The goal, as mutually negotiated by the league and the MLB Players Association, was to get teams to stop manipulating the service time of prospects by dangling a carrot in front of them. For the first time since the inception of the PPI, the Red Sox stand to tangibly benefit.
The PPI program states that any top prospect who accrues 172 days of service time as a rookie — all but two weeks in the minors in a given season, as the regular season equates to 186 total days — can earn his team an additional draft pick if he wins the Rookie of the Year award or finishes in the top three in MVP or Cy Young award voting that season. To qualify, a player must appear on two of three preseason Top 100 Prospects rankings by Baseball America, ESPN and MLB.com. That is no problem for Campbell, who a consensus top prospect across the industry.
If Campbell wins American Rookie of the Year — according to DraftKings Sportsbook, he has the second-best odds, at +500, behind the Yankees’ Jasson Dominguez (+425) — or has a top-three MVP finish, the Red Sox would receive a pick after the first round of the 2026 draft. If Campbell doesn’t win Rookie of the Year or finish in the top-three of MVP voting, he’d have two more chances to net a pick if he finishes in the top-three of the MVP race in either 2027 or 2028. Interestingly, if the Red Sox and Campbell agree to a long-term extension — something that, at this rate, is unlikely — he’d be disqualified for a PPI pick.
There is recent precedent for such a reward. In 2023, Seattle got a PPI pick (29th overall) after Julio Rodríguez won the Rookie of the Year award. A year later, both and Arizona (Corbin Carroll, 31st overall) and Baltimore (Gunnar Henderson, 32nd overall) got picks. Witt finished second in the 2024 AL MVP race, netting the Royals the 28th overall pick in 2025.
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