Red Sox manager explains what he wants to see from Kristian Campbell at 1B

Since Triston Casas went down with a season-ending knee injury the Red Sox have looked all over their roster for a foreseen replacement at first base The club has used Romy Gonzalez Abraham Toro and Nick Sogard none of whom have much experience at the position and approached Rafael Devers as well Now rookie Kristian Campbell is the latest candidate Campbell began taking ground balls at first base on Friday and Sunday he continued running through drills at the position during pregame warmups In the meantime top infield prospect Marcelo Mayer has begun getting more playing time at second base at Triple-A suggesting a likely scenario where Mayer gets called up and takes over that position while Campbell bumps over to first Is that a realistic or imminent possibility Red Sox manager Alex Cora disclosed they will at least need to see if Campbell can handle playing first something he stated won t be as easy as people often assume Honestly we ve been through this dance before in the past Cora commented referencing former Red Sox players Kyle Schwarber Christian Arroyo and Franchy Cordero all of whom endured rocky transitions and in particular cases got hurt trying to play first We re taking a chance here All this talk of this guy should play first this and that I can give you five examples of why it didn t work the last five years It s not just plug a guy over here and see what happens so we have to see how he moves obviously decision-making we won t know until he definitely plays As far as when Campbell could make his in-game debut at first base Cora suggested they may try to ease him into the role if a low-stakes opportunity presents itself We were veritably talking about hopefully we re up and we can put him at first or hopefully not but we re down and he can go to first and get a meager reps Cora revealed We ll get there when we get there This is not a commitment this is introducing the position to the kid We believe that athletic-wise he can do it but there s more than standing there and catching throws Whenever we decide he can handle the position we ll put him there and if we don t believe he can handle it we ll stay the program Cora added later After earning American League Rookie of the Month honors for his hot start in April Campbell has cooled down significantly over the past sparse weeks The -year-old came into Sunday for over his last games since the start of May and has seen his rate statistics and advanced metrics plummet across the board Despite those struggles Cora announced the crew remains committed to the rookie and that his fresh difficulties aren t cause for long-term concern It s just a rookie going through a big league season Teams are going to make adjustments the one thing we like is controlling the strike zone Cora explained We ve just got to be individual this is the highway we went and we understand the participant and we know there s prospective there but we also know how it works over There s going to be various tough stretches we have faced specific quality quality quality pitching