FORT MYERS, Fla. — Both chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and manager Alex Cora mentioned righty Isaiah Campbell as a reliever who could step up after Boston traded John Schreiber to the Royals.
The Red Sox acquired Campbell from the Mariners in November for second baseman Luis Urías.
The Schreiber trade should open up more of an opportunity for Campbell to make the Opening Day roster. MassLive’s most recent Opening Day roster projection has Campbell making the team.
“It’s awesome to hear,” Campbell said when told that both Breslow and Cora mentioned him. “It just kind of shows the work and the effort I’ve put in so far this early in camp. So it’s paying off and the staff’s noticing. But really for me, that stuff, that’s out of my control. So for me, it’s just coming in here every day with a chip on my shoulder. Just come in here, work hard and get better every single day. And if I do that stuff, and do everything I can control, at the end of the day I want to make it harder for them not to keep me on the roster.”
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Cora and Breslow mentioned both Campbell and Greg Weissert, a right-handed reliever acquired from the Yankees in the Alex Verdugo trade. But Cora specifically mentioned Campbell’s ability to get out left-handed hitters. Campbell held left-handed hitting opponents to a .163 batting average in his 27 outings (28 ⅔ innings) for Seattle last year.
“He can get lefties out and that’s something last year, we didn’t do a good job with it,” Cora said. “Our righties struggled throughout the season with that. So we’ll see what happens in the upcoming weeks but I feel comfortable with the guys we have in camp that somebody is going to take this spot and run away with it and help us win some ballgames.”
In the minors last year (Double A), lefties batted just .125 against Campbell.
“I don’t do anything crazily different from lefty to righty,” Campbell said. “Last year I learned a new slider/cutter, just a little firmer. It plays better off my four-seam fastball. I think I’ve just had a lot of success with that — just being able to throw those two pitches. I’ve always been a guy that throws a lot of strikes. so putting those two (pitches) in the zone with my big slider, they all complement each other well. It’s a lot for a lefty to see. So I think that really gave me a lot of success last year.”
Right-handed batters hit .242 against him in the majors and .271 in the minors last year. He feels he’ll be better against righties this year with the addition of a new pitch.
“This offseason, I was really working on getting righties out,” Campbell said. “So just I tried to learn a two-seamer/sinker. And that’s just more of a way to get righties off the plate. And so they have something coming into their bodies and just be like, ‘Woah. OK. He will throw inside to me.’ Just to open up the offspeed pitches. So I’m not saying I was bad against righties last year but the numbers show I was significantly better against lefties.”
The 26-year-old, who stands at 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, posted a 2.83 ERA (28 ⅔ innings, nine earned runs) and 1.22 WHIP in his 27 relief outings for Seattle last year.
Campbell averaged 95 mph with his four-seam fastball velocity last year. He throws two different sliders. Opponents went just 7-for-51 (.137 batting average) with one extra-base hit (double) and .157 slugging percentage against his harder slider in ‘23.
“My approach, it’s pretty simple. It’s throw strikes and throw nasty stuff,” Campbell said. “Everyone in this clubhouse has stuff good enough to be on that roster. So it’s just got to be simple. Just throw strikes and if a guy hits it, so what? They get paid to play baseball just like we do. But I’m going to throw nasty stuff every time.”
