Entering Spring Training, there was plenty of buzz around the future of the second base position in Boston. However, that buzz mostly surrounded the wild card that was the club’s recent addition of Alex Bregman, a third baseman by trade but one who had expressed a willingness to move to second base. That led to plenty of belief that Bregman could slide over to the keystone in deference to incumbent third baseman Rafael Devers, but all indications point towards the club shifting Devers to DH with Opening Day just over a week away.
That leaves a relatively wide-open battle for the second base job this spring. For most of camp, that’s appeared to be a battle between incumbent David Hamilton, top prospect Kristian Campbell, and Vaughn Grissom. While Grissom was the prize of the Chris Sale trade and intended to be the club’s starting second baseman last year, he struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness throughout the year as he got into just 31 big league games and hit a paltry .190/.246/.219 in that time. After Grissom struggled once again in Spring Training this year, hitting just .176/.300/.235 across 13 games, it was hardly a surprise when his bid for the starting second base job came to a close when the Red Sox optioned him to Triple-A yesterday.
Grissom’s exit from the race to start at the keystone in Boston this year didn’t fully narrow the field, however, as another candidate has entered the fray: top infield prospect Marcelo Mayer. While Mayer entered camp seemingly unlikely to earn a spot on the Opening Day roster given the fact that he has yet to play at the Triple-A level and missed much of last year with an injury, the 22-year-old is a consensus top-20 prospect in the sport for a reason and has turned heads this spring with a phenomenal .357/.438/.536 slash line in 15 spring games. That strong work, in conjunction with Mayer’s .307/.370/.480 slash line in 77 Double-A games last year, paint a clear picture of a player who’s ready for a new challenge.
It’s become easier to imagine that challenge being in the majors, though it would certainly be defensible for the club to instead simply promote him to Triple-A and wait for him to prove himself at the position as well. After all, Mayer has spent his entire career at shortstop aside from single-game cameos at third base in each of the past two seasons. He’d not played second base before until this spring and still has only a handful of innings at the position as things stand. While it’s not unheard of for talented players to make the jump from Double-A to the majors and hold their own or even excel offensively, doing that while also learning a new position would be a big ask for any player.
That could make one of the club’s other options more attractive. If the club wants to give Mayer more time to develop while still injecting its Opening Day lineup with some youthful upside, Campbell would be a viable alternative. The 22-year-old is a consensus top-ten prospect in the sport, even more highly rated than Mayer by most services, after a phenomenal year where he catapulted himself from High-A all the way to Triple-A across just 115 games and crushed the ball at every level along the way. After a 19-game stint at Worcester last year where he hit an impressive .286/.412/.486, Campbell entered camp with a clear path to making the club’s Opening Day roster. That path has been complicated, however, by a lackluster spring where he’s hit just .158/.289/.211 in 16 games.
Those offensive struggles, in conjunction with defense at second base that grades out as more decent than spectacular, have created questions as to whether the Red Sox would be better served with more time at Triple-A, serving as depth for the club both at second base but also in the outfield, where he spent 25 games last year in an effort to create more positional versatility. On the other hand, however, Campbell is clearly a strong talent who has proven he can hit at the Triple-A level. He’s also the only right-handed bat in the mix for the everyday second base job with Romy Gonzalez ticketed for a bench role. That’s a factor worth considering given the heavily left-handed makeup for a Red Sox lineup that figures to rely on Devers, Jarren Duran, Triston Casas, Masataka Yoshida, and Wilyer Abreu in significant roles throughout the year, to say nothing of top prospect Roman Anthony. Campbell joining Bregman and Trevor Story as a right-handed hitter who can offer some pop and keep opposing southpaws honest could help balance the lineup in a way that neither Mayer nor Hamilton can offer.
Speaking of Hamilton, he would be a viable alternative to running with a youngster at second base in the event that the club prefers more stable production to begin the season. The 27-year-old doesn’t offer much upside with the bat, having posted a .248/.303/.395 slash line in 98 games last year that probably isn’t too far from his realistic ceiling, but his defense and baserunning are both top-notch and allowed him to put up 2.6 bWAR/1.7 fWAR in just 317 trips to the plate across 98 games last year. Hamilton would also be much easier to justify platooning with Gonzalez than Mayer, who will likely need regular playing time to maximize his development. That could help to alleviate concerns about carrying another left-handed hitting regular for Red Sox brass this year.
As is the case with all top prospects nearing their big league debuts, service time is another consideration. It’s possible that the Red Sox could capture a seventh year of team control over either Campbell or Mayer by holding them down in the minors for at least the first few weeks of the season. And with stars this valuable. that’s surely a tempting possibility. With that being said, the current CBA’s prospect promotion incentive makes the decision to leave a player in the minors to try and get an extra year of service a more complicated one than it was in the days of Kris Bryant and George Springer. If either Campbell or Mayer were to finish within the top two of AL Rookie of the Year voting this year, they would be awarded a full season of service time regardless of how many days they actually spent in the majors.
What’s more, if either player earned a full year of MLB service naturally and either won Rookie of the Year this year or was a finalist in AL MVP voting during his pre-arbitration years, the Red Sox would earn an additional draft pick in the following year’s draft. Given that, if the Red Sox believe there’s a clear path for either youngster to succeed enough that they finish within the top two for Rookie of the Year this season, they might be incentivized to simply put that player on the roster to begin the year in hopes of recouping a draft pick.
Who would you start at second base on Opening Day if you were in Boston’s position? Does Campbell’s Triple-A experience or Mayer’s strong camp hold more weight in your mind? Or perhaps Hamilton is the safest bet that offers the club an opportunity to keep both Mayer and Campbell in the fold for longer? Have your say in the poll below:
David Hamilton is underrated.
Not if you’ve seen him try to field a ball. He’s awful on defense.
That’s harsh. He had an awful start at short before settling in as a guy who is stretched and fringe at short. He’s very good at second.
Hamilton was terrible at SS and great at 2B on defense. His below average arm strength always made his defense at SS questionable at the MLB level.
Fielding balls was not his problem. He has great range and got to balls most of us thought were going through at both SS and 2B. Once he got to the ball he was unable to make the throws at SS.
Even with his questionable defense at SS where he played most of his games, he put up a 2.6 WAR in 98 games total last season because his defense was so good at 2B. That is an All Star level 4.0 WAR over 150 games. I doubt we get that level of performance over a full season, but it makes him a great fit at 2B if Mayer doesn’t win the job and he can move over to SS if/when Story gets hurt.
Everyone knocks Bloom but outside of pitching, he was a great assessor of young talent. Breslow has benefited from Bloom’s talent and of course Henry’s then tight purse strings. Boston actually won the Renfroe-JBJ trade because of Hamilton. They also won the Houston Vasquez trade by getting Abreu. Add those to the trade that got Pivetta who was much more productive than the two they gave to Philly. I had also thought the Benny trade was a winner due to Winkowski (and Franchy lol) but the jury is still out on that one.
The Pitching that Bloom drafted and international signees are a little better then most people realize and will probably pay dividends over the next few years. He may not of used any high draft picks on pitchers but he did draft Drohan in 2020, Hunter Dobbins and Luis Guerrero in 2021, Hayden Mullins in 2022, Connelly Early, Blake Wehunt in 2023. He also signed Juan Valera, Jedixson Paez, and Yordanny Monegro. He drafted all of those pitchers after the 4th round and there’s talent there. Most people don’t know who those guys are but you will as they matriculate.
I get that Bloom didn’t handle the big club well but he did a really good job with the farm system and Breslow just continues with a big emphasis on pitching. I believe that Boston is going to have a bunch of pitching coming from the farm a lot of it has to do with with the new regime and the infrastructure that has been built by Breslow but some of it is going to be guys Bloom brought in. Dobbins and Early especially look like starters with Early as someone most don’t know but barring injury they will know about him this season he will start in AA but he will be in AAA quickly and on the doorstep of the big leagues. The farm is very good and never been deeper imo.
This is the first time I have seen someone defend Blooms pitching, or lack thereof, prospect acquisitions.
Out of those pitchers listed, there will be one maybe two back of the rotation arms, maybe a reliever and that’s. That’s not good.
We will see if I’m wrong I’ll admit will you?
Bruin1012
He may not of used any high draft picks on pitchers
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To me, it makes no difference what positions you draft, so long as you get good value. If your hitters provide good value, then you will have plenty of money to buy pitchers or trade for pitchers.
Sure. There’s a reason why Breslow had to make significant pitching prospect acquisitions, and it’s because Bloom completely ignored the pitching side.
Joemo the reality is Bloom didn’t ignore the pitching side he just didn’t do the flashy first, second, or third round signings. The flameout rate for pitchers is real taking pitchers in the first or second round is very risky. The reality is Bloom did add arm talent he just did it in later rounds and through international signings. It’s also important to remember he only essentially had 3 international signing periods since there wasn’t one in 2020 and in 2019 were mostly DD guys.
People said the same thing about DD and 3/5 of last years rotation were DD guys. It takes time to properly evaluate drafts and especially international signings. I believe time will show he did a decent job with getting arms that ultimately turn out to be big league arms. If you get a couple of guys out of each draft class and international signings to be viable big league arms with a viable big league starter thrown in each year you are doing decent and if you manage to do that without using high picks you have done real well.
Since Bloom earliest selections are just starting to show we will see how they fare and it is true that Breslow identified a problem in pitching depth at the high levels and went out and added more arms it’s really only because of circumstance. Most of the arms that Bloom brought in he went for younger guys like ERC and the international pitchers they were never going to help quickly in fact most of his high end picks were high school guys that are just now starting to show.
I will say I’m excited about what Breslow is doing with pitching and pitching development. At this point I can’t remember a time when top to bottom the pitching in the farm has looked this good. They have arms at every level and look like they are developing a pitching factory it’s very exciting to see. I expect the talent evaluators to really catch up this season on how good the Red Sox farm looks in pitching it’s been coming it’s just accelerated under Breslow.
Joe Brady I would argue that it’s smarter to take position players in the first couple of rounds and take pitchers after those rounds and develop well. Unless you get to sign a guy like Skenes but for every Skenes there are 10 or more Asa Lacey’s.
Bruin – I mostly agree, but again the farm system obviously was the focus during Bloom’s 4 years and he benefited from the financial allocations and failure of the major league team that led to the building up of the farm system.
I mean, the Sox don’t get Teel or Mayer if they don’t finish dead last in 2020 and 2022. They don’t get Hamilton or Binelas if they don’t pay $17.5M for a washed up JBJ. Etc etc.
SoxProspects has a great write up on the investment, or lack thereof, in pitching during Blooms tenure: news.soxprospects.com/2024/02/how-red-sox-draft-st…
And the pitchers you’re talking about are:
– Houck (first round pick by the Sox in 2017, pitching like a top of the rotation guy)
– Crawford (16th round pick, who is a backend starters at best and probably long term suited for a BP role)
– Bello (IFA signed for 28k, most suited for a back of the rotation role)
So the player they actually invested high draft capitol is far and away the best pitcher. Who would have seen that coming.
Bloom needed to fix the pitching across the organization, and he did not adequately address that need. Who cares if the IFA guy you signed turns out to be decent 5 years later when your pitching staff and pitching prospects have been god awful for 6 years?
Joe – I’ve always felt the best way to rate farm systems is by the quality and quantity of MLB players it produces. That’s why the current farm system rankings mean basically nothing.
Dombrowski took some heat for the farm’s rankings at the time he left, but considering he was responsible for Houck, Casas, Rafaela, Duran, Bello and Crawford, Dave definitely got the last laugh.
Bruin – With all due respect, isn’t your first sentence basically like saying “He spent $300K on flashy cars, but he didn’t ignore his home by living in a $50K RV”.
Yes, if you allocate your most valuable resources (high draft picks) to just position players, you are indeed ignoring the pitching.
I totally get that pitching, especially relievers, can be highly volatile.
But we definitely confirmed that relying on dumpster diving and injury rebound candidates for pitching help just doesn’t work.
There’s a reason why Breslow had to make significant pitching prospect acquisitions,
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We had 4 Bloom draftees in the top-25, which is almost unheard of. He used one for one of the best pitchers in BB. And one of the reasons we could spend $20M on Buehler is because we have 4/5 pre-arb players in the lineup.
If Bloom drafted pitchers before the compensation round after the third, the Red Sox could have developed their own Buehler (yay spending 20MM on a guy with a 5+ era last season. That value isn’t hard to replace) on a pre-arb contract.
Base – I agree with you on his defense. As for his WAR, the SB had a LOT to do with it being so high.
As the saying goes, he can’t steal first base …. that’s his biggest problem, he needs to get his OBP% up if he’s going to be a contributor this season.
He needs to ignore the team’s forcing of swinging as hard as possible and trying to loft every ball in the air. If Hamilton can become a decent contact hitter, then he will provide a lot of value to the Red Sox or some other team.
I would argue that it’s smarter to take position players in the first couple of rounds
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I did an informal review of first round picks, including the supplementals. From 2000-2015, I think there were maybe 22 names that stood out as pitchers. It looks like the hitters that succeeded way out-numbered the pitchers.
Smart teams draft the best player available when they pick whatever position they play. You get the most talent you can and you can trade your excess value later for what you need. The Red Sox just traded excess position player value for a pitcher (Crochet). They could have drafted pitchers instead of Teel or Montgomery that they traded for pitching but it didn’t matter. Bloom helped the Red Sox build the no. 1 farm system according to Baseball America and no. 3 farm system according to mlb.com. It is unbelievable people are criticizing what he did with the farm system.
Fever yes during Blooms time the farm was obviously the focus. The farm that was developed during his tenure is on of the best in baseball.
Mayer is the only really high draft pick they got after the pandemic shortened season that was pick number 4 and the highest in really long time. Kyle Teel was the 14th pick not exactly a super low pick but Bloom did benefit from a very deep draft that year. Still he was really good with picks outside the first round it’s hard to criticize his drafts.
I don’t really care when players are picked I care about what I see when those guys compete in the minor leagues and my belief is there is far more talent that was added on the pitching side then most people realize. If you watch the minor league games much you will realize this. It also takes time it’s unrealistic to expect Blooms drafts and international signings to impact pitching much if at all this early. It takes time especially for pitching and especially if you focus on High School or international level pitching.
Time will tell but the point remains there really aren’t very many pitchers that have impacted the big leagues since being drafted or signed as an international free agent. There are of course a few but not that many and quite a few are third round or later picks.
“Since the 2020 Draft”
Bruin – I hope you’re right and those later round pitcher draft picks become solid MLB pitchers.
As I said in an earlier post, ultimately it’s the quantity and quality of prospects that become solid MLB players which proves how good the farm system is, regardless of whether they are drafted or signed as free agents or acquired via trade.
He’s awful on defense.
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All the FG numbers are good-to-very good.
Defensive metrics over 266 innings are essentially noise.
If his defense was actually good, wouldn’t the narrative going into this spring training be how 2B was his job to lose, and not how he was the third option? He’s fast. That’s pretty much it.
Joemo
Defensive metrics over 266 innings are essentially noise.
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I agree that you probably need a solid 2 years for the numbers to mean much. But when someone posts that he is a horrible fielder, all you have to refer to are those 266 innings.
Interesting how close the poll is
Great they have options.
He gets no respect.
I picked Marcelo Mayer only because I’m very curious to see why he wasn’t part of the Crochet package. Is he as good as advertised?
Hard to say. He’s only 22 and hasn’t yet played a single game at AAA. I suspect he’s pretty good, but we really need to see him at AAA – the same is true for Christian and Anthony. I also note that the Red Sox have a long history of over-hyping their prospects/youngsters to the local media (see Kevin Plawecki, Michael Chavis, Jonathan Arauz, Bobby Dalbec, et alia).
Plawecki was 29, in his 6th season and 3rd team when he signed in Boston.
Egads, what was I thinking? My bad. I didn’t mean Plawecki, I meant Swihart. Not even existential twins.
The media hypes prospects, not teams.
Jonathan Arauz was NEVER a Red Sox prospect! He was a Rule 5 selection who had never played above AA, and was required stay on the MLB team the entire season or be returned to his prior team. ARAUZ WAS NEVER HYPED BY ANY ORGANIZATION OR MEDIA.
Gomez Toth
… the Red Sox have a long history of over-hyping their prospects
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It is extremely unlikely that the national rating agencies depend on GMs touting their own prospects.
And Chavis popped into a single poll at #85 after hitting 31 HRs at age 21 and played 3rd. Dalbec popped in twice for pretty much identical reasons.
Those are not unusual rankings.
Gomez – You are 100% correct, the Red Sox have over-hyped many of their prospects.
Other teams do as well, because:
1) It helps instill confidence in the prospects
2) It gets the fanbase excited, which helps sell tickets and drive ratings
3) It influences the media, most of which doesn’t follow prospects that closely, to help build name value by repeating the team’s hype
So while it’s 100% true the team over-hypes their prospects, it’s good business to do so.
I don’t think Mayer has played much 2B ever, including this spring. I think Hamilton gets the job to start the season.
If Hamilton starts, then Campbell has to go to AAA. They said he wouldn’t be sitting
Acoss – Mayer has been injured a lot during his professional career, that’s one big reason the White Sox didn’t want him.
The other big reason is highly touted catchers who are good on both offense and defense are the most valued of prospects. It’s very, very hard to find just a decent defensive catcher …. let alone one who can also put up an .848 OPS in the minors.
Who’s to say the White Sox didn’t want him?
I can’t imagine the White Sox wanted another package around a ML catcher, after they traded Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez for Edgar Quero, who had already made it to AAA and succeeded, and Korey Lee who’s probably nothing more than a backup option, but deserving of a roster spot for sure.
There’s also zero chance that the Red Sox valued Teel more than they valued Mayer, so this assumption is almost certainly wrong IMO.
Bleu – The goal in trades and drafts is always to acquire the most valuable player available, regardless of position. Chicago could always flip Quero if both catchers realize their potential.
As for Mayer vs Teel, Red Sox catchers are ranked among the worst in MLB with nobody good in the pipeline. That plus Mayer’s injury history is the reason Teel was valued more.
If Cora wants to field his best offensive & defensive team he will start Mayer at SS and Story at 2B. If he wants to avoid another disgruntled player scenario he can go with Story at SS and Mayer at 2B.
Trevor Story is a plus fielding SS. The only reason you would take him off short is to protect his health. 13.2 DWar career and 0.4 in 26 games last year.
He got no arm. So over him. Just wish he’d retire or they’d trade this BOZO already. Give the job to Mayer. Trevor Fragile will be done for the year by the end of April. Like usual.
He was worth .7 War in 28 games. his offence was above average and his D was exceptional. Is he fragile? He sure is. Would he be an All Star if he played a full season? Quite possibly. In the 163 games he’s played for Boston he has been worth 4.1 War. I’ll take that in a season.
Most scouts say he’s a second baseman now and injuries don’t help.
The reasons to take Story off short is protect him from arm injuries/diminished arm strength and because although he was already a very good shortstop fielding wise when he played second base for us I thought he was about as good as there was in the game that first year. Lastly, Mayers is the whole package at shortstop. That is what makes the most sense if you carry Mayers and Story. Play both to their strengths.
William – I totally agree, other than the weak pre-surgery Story was solid at 2B.
Hard to believe they couldn’t have packaged two of Grissom/Hamilton/Story so that Campbell and Mayer could get regular playing time in the majors.
The logjam is gonna hurt the team more than they realize.
Ideally the 2B would add another RH bat to the line-up, but I voted Mayer. He’s been crushing this spring.
Bottom of the order with Hamilton / Mayer looks like Wong (R), 2B (L), Rafaela (R). A lefty works just fine in there.
Agreed. I just want to see the Sox put the best talent they have on the field playing at their natural positions to their strengths. The whole versatility thing is a joke. Play people where they are strongest. I would rather have a platoon of players at their natural positions than watch 3 or 4 guys a night playing out of position to mediocrity. I also have no problem with watching so called elite prospects get pencilled in everyday for reps to either succeed or be forced to adapt and grow. At some point you have to decide to SEE what you have and make the players prove they are elite, a piece, or a bust.
“3 or 4 guys a night playing out of position to mediocrity.”
You’ve just defined Alex Cora’s managerial career.
Mayer has had the best spring by far. The only knock on him would be that he hasn’t played in AAA but who cares. Guy is killing it. Give him the shot. Next up should be Campbell. Hamilton a distant third.
So Mayer’s been killing it while pitchers work on pitches and/or haven’t made any team yet. And he hasn’t played a lick of 2nd. Give it to Hamilton! I did.
At the same time that Mayer is hitting well, Hamilton isn’t.
Mayer played 2B earlier this week.
Mayer is hitting well, Hamilton isn’t
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OPS in Spring Training:
Mayer: .995
Hamilton: .817
Well, Mayer won’t hit .350, nor will Hamilton hit
211 at this level. Hitting .250 with 40 steals and good D is more than acceptable in a second sacker, on this team.
Joemo
At the same time that Mayer is hitting well, Hamilton isn’t.
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Player A 46 ABs 2 HRs, 8 SBs, 10/8 K/W
Player B 28 ABs, 1 HR, -0- SBs, 9/4 K/W
You’re implying Hamilton has been struggling against pitchers working on pitches that haven’t made a team yet also.
Joe – Agreed!! Everyone knows the most development comes at the AA level, not AAA.
It’s quite common for prospects to play very little at AAA, or even skip it altogether.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if two of the Big Three are sent down to start the season ….. simply to keep the clock from starting.
Almost 500 votes so far, and only 4 bothered to comment. I rely on Red Sox Fans knowledge to keep me entertained. How disappointing!
The posters with the biggest mouths never, ever opine on subjects like this because they know nothing about it. They only opine on things that have already happened.
A real baseball fan should have an opinion on everything.
stymee – I can’t speak for others, but I have a busy life and therefore don’t have the time to always jump at commenting immediately after an article is posted ;O)
Mayer and Campbell have limited AAA exposure as well as options. Who do you think wins the job?
This might be the closest poll vote in MLBTR history.
Zach – I don’t know about that ….. the 2021 Ginger/Maryann poll and the 2017 Tastes Great/Less Filling polls were pretty damn close too.
I’d be surprised if they went with either of the rookies. Not saying Mayer especially is undeserving from the spring he’s had, but I think with where the Sox are at they’ll give those two some AAA time first
Story at 2nd at Marcelo at SS it’s that’s simple
Grissom isn’t a switch-hitter.
Let’s not use the word hitter either.
I like Hamilton. He’d be an acceptable choice. But I would like to see Mayer get the nod. He looks ready for the big leagues. He represents the higher upside. Campbell will eventually be the second baseman, but he looks as if he needs more seasoning in AAA.
Mayer is great but needs to be their shortstop. I’d start him in AAA until Story I inevitably gets injured. Campbell could do with more tine at AAA just to get his eye back. I’d start with Hamilton. It’s the most boring option but I think both Campbell and Meyer are playing everyday in the mlb by June at the latest
humphrey – Hamilton is anything but boring. He had 3 stolen bases today and basically stole a run. He has more games played at second base than Mayer and Campbell combined. Hamilton should get the opening day roster spot even if Mayer and Campbell are better long term players.
LOL! I don’t think he bothered dusting himself off after he stole 2nd. It was almost like he slid, stood up, and took off again.
When I voted the results were a dead heat:
Meyer 408
Hamilton 406
Campbell 405
I voted for Hamilton. I think he’s pretty good. The team doesn’t think Campbell is ready and I don’t have any reason to believe they’re wrong. Meyer doesn’t have enough AAA experience either.
Hamilton, just so they can manipulate the service time of the other two.
I strongly dislike it when teams do this, almost as much as I despise TJ pitchers being non tendered. But… you could make a case… Campbell needs more “seasoning”, Mayer hasn’t played at AAA yet etc.
This is going to be an interesting Red Sox season. So much potential, can they put something together?
It’s not just “make a case.” Campbell hasn’t shown that he’s ready. They need to see him routine double plays for 60 or 70 games to know that he can handle the position. He hasn’t shown that yet. Just a couple of days ago Alex Cora said he hadn’t even seen Campbell place second base yet.
Sorry, I clicked submit before I was done. Cora hadn’t seen Campbell play second base yet, signifying that his assistance were telling him Campbell wasn’t ready. Of course his team had been telling him Campbell is ready. He would’ve checked him out much sooner.
What I meant was, putting M and C in AAA is easily justifiable, hence ‘make a case’. If Story was injured, leaving Mayer in AAA would be clear service time manipulation. But it’s not.
They should’ve started Grissom. Just give it a shot. If he fails, then go back to the drawing board
He failed in spring training. The other options are better.
With all our top prospects, if I ran the team, it would appear I was doing things to manipulate service time, but the reality is I would really like to see the 3 of them in AAA for a month or more playing everyday at the exact position I am grooming them to take on the MLB team before making a decision to bring up any of them. If that coincides with service manipulation, all the better, but it is a sound reason with these three guys. I don’t want any of them breaking camp worried about matching big league pitching while spending everyday learning to play out of position.
william – Unfortunately the Sox have already made it abundantly clear they envision both Campbell and Mayer playing multiple positions.
The more time they spend in the minors, the longer the delay in them settling into being solid MLB players. Campbell and Anthony should have gotten their feet wet LAST year.
Especially Anthony, who absolutely tore up AAA during the time he was there.
Hamilton. He’s solid and the other two need to show that AAA is easy. One of them will be up eventually this season anyway. Both will be if they rake at AAA. Mayer will need to replace Story’s inevitable IL stint(s) and Campbell will be an easy decision if he does well at AAA considering Hamilton will merely be serviceable, in all likelihood.
What.
Over 30 SB in 98 games, and great range for 2B. Give it to Hamilton.
The line up was dynamic on the base path with Duran, Rafaela, and Hamilton in there. Gonzalez is also fast, Story can run for 15-20 bags if healthy. Abreu is 15 lbs lighter. This team was a monster on the base paths to start last season, I’d like to see that again. Bring up Mayer for whoever gets hurt in the infield.
KC has 2 good 2nd basemen. Bosom have surplus of outfielder. How about a trade? Say Massey for Abreau?
Now that’s an autocorrect I can get behind (and squeeze)!
Steve – I knew somebody would try to milk a joke out of that ;o)
I’m in the minority. I wanted Grissom. It’s make or break for him and he’s got the potential. I’ll get a lot of bad responses for it, but I think we should have given him a chance. One more.
If not him, then Campbell seems like the next best. Keep Hamilton at utility as we need speed
I get the Trevor Story skepticism, honest, I do. No one has to tell me that he’s spent far more time on the trainer’s table than in the batter’s box, since the Hype Train pulled into Fenway Station.
But.
Writing him off as a sunk cost? I haven’t seen the justification, yet. All the comments that say “we should see what this guy can do”, and “we should see what that guy can do?” – I’d rather just see what the proven guy can do, and then, move on from there.
Story has a measurable history as a plus-rated MLB shortstop, especially when his bat tool is taken into account, as well.
I’m guessing that it’s the same people saying “Slide Bregman over to second” are the same people thinking you can plug and play whatever shortstop you want at second, instead.
The best way to build a Red Sox defense (and need I remind anyone here that last season’s Red Sox infield defense was deplorable?) is to play the proven plus talent third baseman, Alex Bregman, at third, the proven plus talent shortstop, Trevor Story at short, take the glove away from the matador that has played third base (the very paragon of a player born to be a team’s DH), and, as the subject of this very article debates, figure out which, of a fairly large pool of unproven second basemen, can seize the position; demonstrating at least replacement level performance at the plate, and in the field.
I can’t get to the logic of playing Devers at third, or Bregman or Story at second. This isn’t a Lego kit of identical parts; it’s a baseball team of nonfungible players with individual skill sets.
I think Hamilton should be automatic.
He played well last year, and has had a good ST. He hasn’t convinced me that he isn’t more than a platoon player, but he could be pretty good for 120+ games against righties. And Romy has good splits against lefties.
Campbell has -0- HRs and 15 Ks in 38 ABs. He shouldn’t be a consideration.
Mayer is interesting, but he has -0- ABs in AAA, -0- innings at 2nd, and with 9 Ks in 28 ST ABs, isn’t exactly lighting it up.
I think it’s Mayer’s time to come up. We have been talking about this guy since he was drafted, it’s time to let him sink or swim at second or ya move Story to second and let him play short.
Hamilton’s solid and ready, though, and could let the kids grow without pressure.
Seems to me that Hamilton would be the right choice for a few reasons:
• Defense at 2B
• Speed/Intelligence on the Base-paths
• Experience playing 2B in MLB
• Service time w/top prospects in Sox favor
• And he seems to be a solid locker room guy (they all seem good like that honestly)
Hamilton is an absolute menace to other teams while on base – one of the fastest players in the league with major success stealing bags/taking advantage of misplays to score/put himself in scoring position (smart player on the bags). As we’ve seen from Tampa Bay in the past (and some others), speed kills. I seriously believe it would be a shame to NOT start Hamilton (while letting the top prospects get more time to develop at AAA).