Red Sox's Alex Cora Reveals Reason For Surprise Kristian Campbell Position Swap

The Boston Red Sox caused some confusion on Saturday, and rising star Kristian Campbell was at the center of it.

Initially, reports surfaced that Campbell would play left field against the St. Louis Cardinals, with Ceddanne Rafaela on the bench and David Hamilton taking over second base, where Campbell gets the majority of his starts.

However, the lineup was eventually corrected to show that Campbell would play center field in the majors for the first time, allowing Jarren Duran to stay in left, where he regularly starts. Because Duran split his time evenly between center and left last season, it was something of a surprise.

Saturday's game was eventually postponed due to rain, but in game one of the Sunday doubleheader, Campbell is once again slated to play center. And according to manager Alex Cora, this will be a somewhat regular occurrence, and it's all because the team believes keeping Duran in left will be a difference-maker.

“He’s going to play himself into a Gold Glover in left field," Cora said, per Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. "Just watching Jarren play left, I think he’s a monster out there. The decision-making, it’s different. He can make plays [going] left and right. The more he plays there the better it’s going to be for us.”

Campbell played significantly more center field than corner outfield in the minor leagues, but during spring training, the Red Sox had him concentrate on left. Cora, for his part, wasn't sure why the team had done that.

“I don’t know why,” Cora said. “He played center, why were we trying to do this?”

Campbell has been showcasing his versatility ever since the Red Sox drafted him as a college shortstop just 20 months ago. It's important for him to get comfortable at second (there were some dicey plays in the ninth inning of Friday's game), but he'll be able to stick in the outfield too if the infield ever gets too crowded.

It's not even been a week since Campbell signed his $60 million contract extension, but he's wasting no time proving all the different ways he can be of value to this Red Sox team.