Red Sox Rookie Silences Doubters With Plate Resurgence

The Boston Red Sox are enjoying June.

Boston’s 4-3 record isn’t anything to jump for joy about, but what’s been encouraging is that a couple of the Red Sox’s slumping right-handed bats have begun to break out of the doldrums since May ended.

Trevor Story and Kristian Campbell are raking again, with both players showing out in the weekend series win over the New York Yankees.

Story went 2-for-4 on Sunday, hitting his eighth home run of the season. After a nightmare May, Story is slashing .320/.393/.520/.913 in June with 154 wRC+.

Campbell also went yard on Sunday versus the Yankees as a part of a 2-for-3, two-RBI day for the rookie. His June numbers, like Story’s, are much improved compared to May. Campbell is slashing .286/.400/.476/.876 in June with 148 wRC+.

Campbell’s success this week came at an inconvenient time for analysts pushing for his demotion, most notably The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, who asserted that the Red Sox should option Campbell to make room for Roman Anthony.

Anyone insisting on a Campbell demotion might need to exercise some patience, especially in light of how MLB rookies usually operate.

Take San Diego Padres’ Jackson Merrill and Milwaukee Brewers’ Jackson Chourio as examples. Both players had stellar rookie seasons (Merrill was an NL All-Star), but neither started the season on fire.

In fact, when comparing Campbell’s 2025 season through June 7 to Merrill’s and Chourio’s 2024 seasons through June 7 of last year, Campbell’s wRC+ (85) trumped both Merrill’s (84) and Chourio’s (65).

There’s also the fact that Campbell was named American League Rookie of the Month for March/April.

One bad month at the plate from Campbell caused quite the overreaction from fans and analysts alike.