{"id":50351,"date":"2025-04-06T09:41:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T09:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=50351"},"modified":"2025-04-06T09:41:04","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T09:41:04","slug":"after-ultimate-experience-in-red-sox-home-opener-kristian-campbell-ready-for-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=50351","title":{"rendered":"After \u2018ultimate experience\u2019 in Red Sox home opener, Kristian Campbell ready for more"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Infielder<\/p>\n

Saturday was the second day in a row that the Red Sox celebrated a long-term commitment to a young superstar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like just yesterday we were gathered in this room and celebrating a very important moment for the Boston Red Sox,\u201d joked chief baseball officer Craig Breslow as the\u00a0 Fenway Park\u2019s interview room filled with laughter early that afternoon.<\/p>\n

Twenty-six hours after Garrett Crochet\u2019s contract-extension press conference, Breslow and team president\/CEO Sam Kennedy were back in the same seats. This time, Kristian Campbell sat between them, his parents and younger brother off to the side.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long time since baseball\u2019s oldest ballpark had such an exciting and promising energy. Campbell is a big reason why, with Breslow describing the extension as \u201ca massively significant moment for this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of what sets Campbell apart from fellow top prospects Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony is that he wasn\u2019t the prototypical rising star. Two years ago, he was finishing the school year at Georgia Tech. That summer, he was Boston\u2019s 2023 draft-compensation pick from the San Diego Padres after they signed Xander Bogaerts. He skyrocketed from High-A to Triple-A last season and won several awards for his efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cKristian was not drafted in the first round, he wasn\u2019t a top prospect upon entering the organization,\u201d said Breslow, who praised Campbell, and the organization\u2019s scouting and development departments. \u201cWhat he was was a good player who made himself a great player because of his work ethic, and diligence, and open-mindedness, and attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the relatively short time since Campbell joined the organization, he\u2019s impressed everyone from teammates and coaches, to the front office, with how he goes about his business, diligently and with maturity beyond his now-22 years. He can be reserved at times, but he lights up when he talks about his favorite topics, including his loved ones and of course, baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word to describe your son around camp, from where I sit anyway as someone who\u2019s not in the clubhouse each and every day, is humility,\u201d Kennedy said, \u201cthat\u2019s probably life\u2019s greatest achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was evident, too, in why Campbell decided to sign the extension, and his mindset now that he\u2019s a millionaire. Asked if he had any big purchases in mind, he said he hadn\u2019t thought about it, and probably wouldn\u2019t until the offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Saving and investing) is a great idea,\u201d he told the Herald. \u201cSave it as much as you can, and keep playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also knew there was a good chance he was be leaving tens, even hundreds of millions on the table by signing this deal, but that wasn\u2019t his priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extension is life-changing for me and my family,\u201d he told the Herald on Friday morning. \u201cIt\u2019s a really big deal to us, and for them to put their trust in me and do what they did means a lot to me and my family. It\u2019s just a blessing to be in this situation, and it\u2019s life-changing for me and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell\u2019s deal is one of, if not the earliest long-term commitment the Red Sox have ever made to a player, but it sounds like it won\u2019t be the last of its kind.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn (Henry), and Tom (Werner), and Mike (Gordon) have been pushing us to be aggressive in terms of locking up the future,\u201d Kennedy said, referring to the club\u2019s principal owner, chairman, and president of Fenway Sports Group.<\/p>\n

While Breslow and Kennedy focus on that, Campbell is thrilled to have the contract, his family, and his future mapped out, because he wants to focus on his own job.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt frees me up a lot,\u201d he said of getting the deal done. \u201cThat\u2019s literally all I\u2019m worried about right now, is just winning games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over 1,200 regular-season games stand between Campbell and the final guaranteed year of his contract. To the 22-year-old, the age-30 season may feel eons away, but he has no reservations about spending them in Boston.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great place to be for when I am 30,\u201d he said earnestly, eliciting a few laughs. \u201cI have no complaints about it\u2026 couldn\u2019t ask for much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what made Boston and the Red Sox the right fit for him, Campbell said, \u201cEverything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city\u2019s great. It\u2019s a city of winning people. It\u2019s a winning culture, there\u2019s winning people everywhere around me, everywhere I go, and the coaches and staff around me make it really easy for me to enjoy being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already in his young career, Campbell is something of a home-opener veteran. Three of his eight major league games were home openers: first in Texas, then Baltimore, and finally, Fenway the day before his press conference. Game No. 1 at his new home field reinforced that he made the right choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being in front of fans, being in front of the city for the first time, just experiencing that, that\u2019s what I\u2019m really excited for, to be honest,\u201d he told the Herald on Friday. \u201cI mean, I played in Texas and Baltimore now, and those were exciting, but I feel like there\u2019s nothing like the home crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely was the ultimate experience,\u201d he reiterated in the press conference. \u201cI mean, I experienced a couple more opening days on the road, and this one that we had yesterday didn\u2019t compare to those two. It was better here in Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFans were really engaged, they were into the game, and we did really good, also! I mean, everybody went off yesterday,\u201d he said happily, eliciting more chuckles. \u201cJust the energy. I was on-deck whenever (Trevor Story and Wilyer Abreu homered) back-to-back. \u2026 It was just crazy just hearing how loud the stadium was and the energy that went all throughout the stadium, so it\u2019s fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published:

Saturday was the second day in a row that the Red Sox celebrated a long-term commitment to a young superstar. \u201cIt feels like just yesterday we were gathered in this room and celebrating a very impo\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":50354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\nAfter \u2018ultimate experience\u2019 in Red Sox home opener, Kristian Campbell ready for more - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=50351\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After \u2018ultimate experience\u2019 in Red Sox home opener, Kristian Campbell ready for more - 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