By Conor Ryan
March 27, 2025
WORCESTER — Less than two years after being drafted by the Red Sox out of Georgia Tech, Kristian Campbell has made it to the big leagues.
MLB.com’s No. 7 prospect has looked like a natural against minor-league pitching since arriving in Boston’s farm system, but there are still a big learning curve for the 22-year-old infielder now that he’s made it to the show.
“When we got to the hotel in Mexico, he asked who was his roommate,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s pregame coverage. “Yesterday, in stretch, everybody was like, ‘Who’s your roommate?’
“We kept going, and I met with him last night. Talked to him about his routine and what to expect. ‘The bus is at 1:00, show up at 12:50,’ all that stuff. And then at the end, I said, ‘By the way, there’s no roommates in the big leagues.’ He was like, ‘Oh, no?’”
The same luxuries available for Campbell and the rest of Boston’s 26-man roster aren’t afforded to several of Campbell’s former teammates in Triple-A Worcester — at least not yet.
Both Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer — the other two pillars of Boston’s fabled “Big Three” prospects — won’t open a new baseball season alongside Campbell in MLB.
But with Campbell finally breaking through as the next wave of top talent for Boston, Anthony is already drawing plenty of inspiration from seeing one of his friends realize his MLB dreams.
“Me and Marcelo both just kind of got chills,” Anthony said Thursday at WooSox Media Day of Campbell’s promotion. “We weren’t surprised. He’s great, he’s a great worker, he showed up every day in spring, took care of what he needed to take care of. I’m excited.”
As Anthony and Mayer prepare for their own season opener on Friday afternoon in Worcester, Campbell’s debut with Boston — achieved after just 19 games spent in Triple-A last summer — was put on full display at Polar Park.
We’ll still be here,” Mayer said of Worcester’s on-field workout Thursday. “So you best believe all these televisions [in Worcester’s clubhouse] will be on watching the game.”
Sure enough, Polar Park’s video board in left field put Campbell’s big-league debut against the Rangers on full display — with the poised prospect going 1-for-3 at the plate with a single and walk in Boston’s 5-2 season-opening victory.
Campbell made the most of his first game with the Red Sox — collecting his first big-league hit after drilling a pitch in the ninth inning that ricocheted off Texas third baseman Josh Jung’s glove and into shallow left field.
In the next at-bat, Wilyer Abreu golfed a pitch into the right-field seats for a three-run shot — breaking a 2-2 deadlock and carrying Boston to its first win of the 2025 campaign.
“I would say the second half of the game. The second half, I started settling in,” Campbell told reporters after the win of when he started settling into the game. “The first half, I was definitely emotional, too, before the game. (During) The National Anthem, I had some tears and stuff; just thinking about family and how long I’ve come to get it at the moment.
“Definitely emotional for the first half of the game, trying to get myself together, but I’m definitely used to it. I’m focused on the second half of the game.”
Kristian Campbell on his debut, first hit 🔊 ⬇️
“Second half I started settling in… definitely emotional too before the game during the National Anthem, had some tears, just thinking about family.” 🥹#RedSox pic.twitter.com/44GA4tqy74
— NESN (@NESN) March 27, 2025
Even with Campbell’s relative inexperience and what was an up-and-down spring training (.167 batting average), Mayer is not surprised to see Campbell accelerate his timeline to baseball’s highest level.
“He knows the player that he is,” Mayer said of Campbell. “Obviously he knows he didn’t have the spring that he wanted to. But he’s one of the most talented baseball players I’ve ever played with. So I just told him to go be himself, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s gonna have a great career.”
It may not take very long for the rest of the “Big Three” to join Campbell in Boston.
Anthony — MLB.com’s No. 2 prospect — battled .344 with 20 RBI in 30 games with Worcester last season at just 20 years old.
And even with injuries hindering Mayer the past two seasons, the 22-year-old shortstop boosted his stock this spring by batting .333 with a home run and 11 RBI over 36 at-bats.
“It’s super motivating,” Anthony said of Campbell making it to the show. “I think that’s the goal for us — is to just get there as fast as we can. But for the time being, we’re not there right now, so just help this team win and do everything we can while we’re here. Hopefully we get back to playing with Kristian pretty soon.”
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