Red Sox Make Unusual Kristian Campbell Decision Following MiLB Demotion

The Boston Red Sox want to make Kristian Campbell's demotion to Triple-A count.

Two-and-a-half months after signing a $60 million extension, Campbell was in such an extended rut that he left the Red Sox little choice but to send him back to the minors. He's still a huge part of this team's future, including (maybe) this season, but he clearly had a lot of things to clean up.

Campbell was batting .159 since the start of May, but his defense might have been the bigger issue. He couldn't get comfortable at second base, which is still a relatively new position for him, and he had more negative defensive runs saved (-14) than anyone else at any position in the majors.

As they're trying to build him back up, the Red Sox are taking a curious approach with Campbell. They won't be sending him with the Worcester Red Sox on the first few days of their road trip to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Instead, he'll remain in town and work on some things at Polar Park with members of the WooSox's staff.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora explained the thinking behind the somewhat unusual decision.

“We talked about it (Saturday), me and (Craig Breslow),” said Cora, per Sean McAdam of MassLive. “It’s kind of like, just letting him know, this is what we’re trying to accomplish. Like I said Friday, it’s not about hitting .500 in Triple A; it’s about ‘This is what you need to do.’

“We’ll talk about being aggressive early in counts, recognizing the fastballs, the different types of them. We all know what he struggled with, so it’s kind of like a reset and walking through what we want. But he needs to play. At the end of the day, you gain experience playing nine innings and going through every situations.”

Campbell is expected to get some game action at first base in Worcester after the Red Sox ended up scrapping that plan at the big-league level at the start of the month. He was the designated hitter on Sunday, and had a much-needed 2-for-4 outing with a triple and a double.

If there's any risk to the Red Sox's decision, it's that they could be stopping his momentum after his first big day at the plate in quite some time.

McAdam also reported that the Red Sox's "tentative" plan is for Campbell to rejoin the WooSox at some point during their current road trip, with Thursday and Friday as potential options.

When Campbell comes back to Boston is secondary. The Red Sox need to make sure he has his feet under him, both on offense and defense, however long that takes.