Red Sox Must Avoid Replacing Triston Casas With This Rising Star

The Boston Red Sox shouldn’t let the Triston Casas injury affect another young player’s development.

Casas’s ruptured patellar tendon threw a wrench in Boston’s infield depth chart, but that doesn’t mean the Red Sox need to panic and make a head-scratching decision.

Not surprisingly, the media has come up with plenty of misguided ideas for first base since Casas went down. One of those ideas arrived on Tuesday in the form of NBC Sports’ Justin Leger suggesting that the Red Sox move Kristian Campbell to the position.

“Ideally, the Red Sox would keep Campbell at second base to avoid any potential setbacks in his development as a rookie,” Leger wrote.

“Unfortunately, their lack of first base options has put them in a less-than-ideal situation.”

“Campbell has been outstanding through the first 30 games of his MLB career. The 22-year-old is hitting .290/.394/.477 with four homers and 12 RBI. He was named the American League Rookie of the Month for March and April.”

“If there's anything to nitpick about Campbell's game thus far, it's his below-average defense. He hasn't impressed at second base and has been even worse when asked to play the outfield.”

“Since Boston wouldn't lose any defensive value at second base, having Campbell (learn) to play first base is worth a shot. He looks the part at 6-foot-3 and, as a hungry rookie who already inked an eight-year extension, is seemingly willing to do whatever the team asks.”

“Plus, moving Campbell to first base would clear the path for Marcelo Mayer to earn a call to The Show. The Red Sox could have Mayer replace Campbell up the middle, or keep him at shortstop with Trevor Story moving to second base.”

“It isn't the most likely option on our list, but it's certainly one of the most intriguing.”

In defense of Leger here, he did come up with a handful of other ideas for first base in addition to Campbell, but he also did have Campbell ranked as the second-best option among those ideas.

The problem with putting Campbell at first is that it sets up a situation where you’re allowing one problem (Casas’s injury) to turn into two. By yanking Campbell all around the field defensively, Boston would be messing with his development. The sooner he plays most days at one position (second base), the better. 

Why let the Casas situation negatively affect Campbell, especially when there are other options for Boston at first base? Romy González is currently hitting .327.

Campbell is too valuable a cornerstone of the future to be involved in this situation.